your sensei is Sasori!
by closedofHeart
Summary: What if instead of Baki the sand sibs got Sasori for a sensei, what would change what would stay the same? Has Gaara, Sasori, Baki, Temari and the fourth Kazekage, Orochimaru and lots more. A filck for lesser known characters in canon.
1. meeting Sasori

A/N: I want Sasori to livvveeee! All hail Akatsuki fandom!

No I don't own Naruto or its characters nor am I responsible for the many plot twist that turned Sasuke into a Mary Sue. Naruto is so difficult to understand now….

Jokes and notes aside, someone once messaged me on trying on a story in which Sasori lived and I agree with her. So here's a story on what if Sasori was the jounin sensei of the sand sibs instead of Baki.

Hope you like it.

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The Yondaime Kazekage was caught in a dilemma, his son Gaara had graduated together with his other two children. He sighed, knowing Gaara's reputation for being unstable, it was safe to say that most adult won't agree to work with him.

Running his hand through his brown hair, the fourth thought of possible candidates to train his three children. There could only be one choice.

As if by the will of his thought alone, there came a knock on the door. "Enter," the fourth said hurriedly straightening his robes, the person he should impress should be arriving round about now.

The door opened and three people walked in, one of them was a dark skinned man dressed in the normal jounin vest, with red facial markings and turban with a small cloth covering half his face. Another was a woman with short brown hair, dressed in a dark blue blouse and short skirt, with fishnets covering her arms, waist and shin, she also had a large black fan on her back with the kanji word for 'wind' at one end.

It was the third man however that the fourth really want to impress, a young man with bright red hair like his youngest son, he looked like a child but had eyes that were dark and cold of a ruthless killer, he wore a simple black cloak over his black pants with no adornments except the kanji for 'scorpion' on his left shoulder. (Think of Akatsuki cloak without the clouds.)

The fourth knew that despite these three harmless appearances, they were ruthless killers. The man with the turban was called Baki, and was one of Suna's best Anbu before he became a jounin. The woman was called Fujin and was so skilled with her primary element wind that she was dubbed in the bingo book 'the walking sandstorm.'

The finally man was called Akasuna no Sasori, he was a genius puppeteer who suffered a fatal accident more than twenty years ago, causing him to be almost fully puppet after extensive surgery by his grandmother Chiyo. It was a secret that only Chiyo and the four knew, the rest of Suna simply thought of him as someone who used a medical ninjutsu to appear young like Tsunade.

"Thank you all for being here, Baki, Fujin and Sasori," the fourth said, "I see you out of Hiruko today Sasori." The fourth had been advised or **ordered**, not to care about where Sasori got his puppets from his predecessor before he died. Nevertheless, the fourth had several suspicions regarding that when the prisoners sent for excution were never found, Suna's traitors included.

Sasori looked at the four with indifference, "he's on maintenance from the last mission."

"Sasori sama!" Baki exclaimed, shocked at Sasori's obvious disrespect, but he knew Sasori had never supported the fourth to be the new Kazekage.

Fujin brushed back several strands of hair back, "so why did you call us Kazekage?" There was deep anger in her eyes; it was obvious she was still against the fourth for personal reasons.

The fourth sighed, he had hoped that if Sasori refuse he could still ask her, but it seemed unlikely. Fujin was one of the minorities in Suna who had argued against the use of Shukaku on a newborn Gaara.

Sasori looked at the fourth, impatience shown all over his face, the fourth wondered whenever he disrupted some project of Sasori's. "If there's nothing else, I'm leaving," Sasori said turning his back o walk away.

"Wait," the fourth said raising a hand, "I need one of you to be the jounin sensei for my children's genin team."

Baki blanched. Fujin looked uneasy. Both of them knew the instability of Shukaku's vessel, only Sasori remained expressionless turning his head back to glance at the fourth from the corner of his eyes. But there was a glimmer of interest in those dark green eyes, _a good sign_, thought the fourth, aware of how much like Gaara Sasori looked.

"I take you have some trouble finding someone willing to be his jounin sensei," Sasori said.

Damn you, the fourth felt inclined to say but choose not to, "that's right, you three are the best candidates for the position."

"Not interested," Sasori said resuming his action to leave the room, "I got no time to be babysitting some snot nose brats."

"Kazekage sama," Baki said trying to ease the tension, "it is too dangerous for any jounin to work together with Gaara especially since he's reputed to kill anything that moves, furthermore he is a…."

"A demon," Fujin splat out, "its because of people like you that the vessel of the Shukaku has to go through so much torment."

"I don't see you volunteering," Baki snapped back, "you only, say that because your people came to our village with that filth behind you."

"My grandfather…" Fujin replied back, "f it wasn't for him, your village would have been destroyed." Sasori wisely choose not to interfere continuing his walk to the door, he thought of ways to improve Hiruko since he was under repair.

"Why you…." Baki's retort was cut short when the fourth finally spoke, "stand down both of you, this is an order." Both of them obeyed, one did not become an excellent shinobi by ignoring orders from your superior. By now Sasori had already reached the door and had place his hand on the doorknob. The fourth took a deep breath and told himself to calm down, exhaling the air he breathed in, the fourth spoke, "all I ask is that someone to look after them until they become chunin. Even though they are siblings, they have never really had a chance to bond with each other….ever since their mother passed away…."

Playing the sympathy card are we Kazekage? Sasori thought, typical Yondaime Kazekage. Fujin looked solemn, Baki opened his mouth to speak, "Kazekage sama."

"Since you three are all experts in your specialised fields, it will good for them to learn from masters of your arts. My eldest son Kankuro has an interest in puppetry while my second child Temari has an aptitude for wind."

Sasori almost felt like smirking, a Sabaku interested in his art? He wouldn't last. Fujin however looked thoughtful, she was always eager to teach talented students her craft. Baki knew they couldn't work alone without a supervisor even if they are geniuses, they will need someone to guide them.

The room was silent. Sasori was the first to broke the silence, "I'll need a word with you in private Kensai." Fujin and Baki both look at Sasori in surprise. "Since no one wants it, I'll volunteer."

"Very well," the fourth said sounding relieved, "you two are dismissed." Both of them saluted and left closing the door behind them. Sasori immediately did a silencing jutsu the moment the door was closed.

"Now then," Sasori said taking chair from across the room and seating himself directly opposite the fourth, "since I could tell you wanted me for the brats jounin instructor, what do I get out of this?"

0000000000000

It was several hours before they finally struck a deal, satisfied Sasori stood up and walked over to the door, before he disappeared from sight, Sasori looked at the fourth directly in the eye, "by the way, tell those brats to come on time at 10 or I'll do something drastic. I hate waiting."

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1001 am the next day

The sand siblings reached their appointed meeting place, Temari was feeling apprehensive, Kankuro looked nervous and was constantly staring at Gaara. Only Gaara remained impassive.

"You three are late (by one minute)," Sasori rasped. All three of them were shocked and little bit disgusted when they finally meet their sensei. He was a hunchbacked man wearing an huge plain black cloak (Akatsuki no clouds), and had small eyes and spiked black hair.

Temari felt like rolling her eyes, _oh please this man was their instructor_?

(A/N: at this point in the story they are still little kids, they'll whine complain, bicker and drive Sasori up the wall. There will be several events that will make them mature. So no reviews about OC, this is fanfiction!)

Kankuro spoke what was on Temari's mind, "so you're our jounin sensei?"

"Is there a problem?" Sasori rasped, he could see that two of them were visibly intimidated by his rough appearance, _good._

Temari was quick to recover, "oh no, no problem sensei, just surprised that's all."

Sasori snorted, "if you going to work with me, get used to it brats, since you kept me waiting for so long, let's hurry up and began with an introduction."

Temari sweatdropped, they were late by just one minute, note to self, this sensei is particular about time, in answer to Sasori words, Temari asked, "excuse me?" Even Kankuro seemed confused.

Sasori wondered whenever he was going to have to spell out EVERYTHING for these brats, "name. Likes. Dislikes. Hobbies. Dreams for the future. Hurry up I don't have all day, you with the blond hair, you start first."

"Sabaku no Temari. I like strategy, and learning, I also wish to master wind elemental abilities and my fan," Temari place one hand on the fan attached to her back, "its my mother's. I dislike perverts and men who think women are weak. My hobbies include cooking, (Kankuro snorted, Temari glared at him, Sasori wondered what he was missing) I just don't do it often enough. My dream for the future is to be an outstanding strategist and shinobi, that my….family will be proud of."

Sasori nodded, "family is where the heart is," he rasped, recalling his parents and his grandmother, he wondered how she was doing, probably playing dead again, "you with the facial markings."

"Sabaku no Kankuro," Kankuro said, "my likes are building and using puppets. I also like Jiroku's meat buns and meeting Sasori."

Sasori blinked, so this is the one that interested in my art. "Gay," Temari said not bothering to keep her voice down.

"I do not! I only respect the guy!" Kankuro protested. Temari simply smirked. Sasori wondered what was he missing.

"Any guy that plays with dolls is gay," Temari smirked patting the fan on her back, "my fan is a really weapon unlike those girly dolls."

_How dare she_, Sasori almost flared up, but immediately realise that there wasn't any heart in that insult, she was simply teasing her brother, still his collection is definitely not DOLLS.

"Their puppets!" Kankuro yelled, "seriously if you weren't a girl, I would so kick your ass right now!"

"Hah, even if you weren't a girl I could still kick your ass!" Temari retorted back.

"Kankuro…." Sasori rasped out before the fight turned ugly, Kankuro looked ashamed to be caught in a childish moment, "ignore her and continue."

"Dislikes are…..Temari (Temari stuck out her tongue), rotting food and anyone who says bad things about Sasori."

Temari muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like, 'homo.'

(A/N: no offence to any homosexuals out there, they're kids, naturally there will be some tasteless jokes and taunts.)

Kankuro ignored her and continued, "hobbies are mainly puppets I guess, they're my obsession…." But Temari interrupt, "not to mention he kisses the puppets he makes before he goes to sleep every night, and oh yeah I remember he has a plushie called Sasori that hugs to sleep tooooo."

I am NEVER visiting his house EVER, Sasori thought with a shudder.

"Temari!" Kankuro yelled, "that's so not true!"

Thank goodness, Sasori thought.

"Dreams for the future…" Kankuro looked embarrassed, "is too surpass Sasori and be the best puppeteer in the world!" Temari snorted, but Sasori's words caught her by surprise.

"A noble goal," Sasori rasped, "but even if you become the best, you must also constantly continue to upgrade your craft, surpass your old achievements. When the days comes for you to finally part this world, you art would have then become eternal."

Temari was speechless, she thought their sensei must also be a puppeteer, oh shit, she thought remembering her previous words. Kankuro remained silent, thoughtful.

"What about you, the silent one at the back," Sasori asked.

There was a slight pause as if thinking before Gaara spoke, "Sabaku no Gaara. I like killing to justify my existence. I have lots of dislikes. Hobbies include giving mother fresh blood. No dreams for the future."

Sasori was intrigued so that was the reason why these two were so nervous and frighten at the same time. That boy Gaara has almost become a perfect killing tool, the Yondaime….what has he done? Something of Gaara made Sasori extremely cautious, Sasori decided to research that later.

Gaara the spoke placing a hand on his head, "you…you are strong……what is your name? Mother can sense your power……she wants your blood."

Mother? Sasori wondered. Instinctly Sasori decided to test Gaara's defense, immediately a long metal tail snaked out from under Sasori's cloak and ended up hitting Gaara's shield of sand. Retracting it immediately after that one hit, Sasori was stunned at the force of the blow.

It was then Sasori decided to answer Gaara's question, "Akasuna no Sasori."

Sasori of the red sand 

Kankuro immediately fainted. "Kankuro!" Temari yelled running over to feel her brother's pulse.

Well this is interesting, Sasori thought a rare smile on his wooden face, very interesting indeed.

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Extra (1):

"Sabaku no Kankuro," Kankuro said with a dreamy smile, "likes….(fanboy squeal)"

"He means Sasori," Temari translated. Sasori sweatdropped.

"Dislikes….(glares at Temari), hobbies include…eeeeee cant tell its too embrassing!"

Oh no….Sasori thought. "You don't want to know," Temari said encouragingly.

"Dreams for the future…..eeeeeiiiiiiiii!"

"Marriage," Temari translated.

Sensei or not, Sasori decided to leave Suna and head for the hills, eventually joining Akatsuki.

Extra (2):

Kankuro ignored her and continued, "hobbies are mainly puppets I guess, they're my obsession…." But Temari interrupt, "not to mention he kisses the puppets he makes before he goes to sleep every night, and oh yeah I remember he has a plushie called Sasori that hugs to sleep tooooo."

I am NEVER visiting his house EVER, Sasori thought with a shudder.

"Temari!" Kankuro yelled, "that's so not true! I did that, years ago! "

RUN! Sasori thought and disappeared immediately.

"I knew it," Temari exclaimed, "he's Sasori! Pay up!"

"Damn," Kankuro and Gaara cursed.

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Be nice and review, telling me whenever I should continue this or remain as a one short.

The character of Sasori is a bit different from the canon because he took a different path instead of leaving Suna, so let's say he's more social and leave it like that (sweatdrop).

To Kamikaze Hakkeshu for giving me the idea, hope you liked it.


	2. team Sasori

chapter 2:

Disclaimer: i wont out another one after this chapter, so here it is again, I do not own Naruto, Bleach or any other anime. So there.

Sorry for the wait folks.

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"Akasuna no Sasori…"

Kankuro immediately fainted.

"My impression of you brats is……" Sasori paused, "is unacceptable (a fanboy, a braggart and a blood thirsty maniac)."

Temari face-vaulted, Gaara resumed back into his impassive state, Kankuro still lay there like a dead fish (A/N: no reference to Kisame what so ever….ehem). When Temari recovered she made sure to betray none of her emotions on her face, I actually said all those things about puppets in front of him?! And he's our sensei no less…..this is bad…..

"…..I have high expectations of those who work with me, so I will accept no excuses or slacking, be on time, complete the mission, and return to base, you will receive your first mission as a team at the suna mission room at 10 am, don't be late, that will be all," Sasori rasped ignoring everybody's reaction to his words, Temari still had the doom face on, Kankuro was now waking up, and Gaara had a slight twitch on his right eye, "any questions?"

Kankuro sat up and raised a hand, "um Sensei?"

"What is it?" Sasori asked.

"You forgot to introduce yourself," Kankuro said still feeling weak.

"My name is Sasori that is all you really need to know about me. I want people to come on time or else…..I dislike waiting for others or to keep people waiting, hobbies is mainly things to do with puppets or my art which are **NOT DOLLS**…and dreams for the future….none," Sasori rasped, "if there is nothing else… you are dismissed." With that Sasori formed the seals and proofed into smoke.

"Not a very social person is he?" Temari asked turning to look at Kankuro for his reaction. Kankuro's jaw was open, and he looked stunned. "oi Kankuro," Temari walked in front of Kankuro and waved her right hand in front of his face, "Kankuro?"

"He's fainted Temari," Gaara said having numerous experiences of people fainting when they see him.

Temari immediately place her hands on Kankuro's shoulders and started shaking him, "oi Kankuro if you want to faint again, at least keep your eyes closed!!!!!"

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Sasori was deep in thought as he entered the hallway leading to the kazekage's office, immediately he was surrounded on all sides by curious jounin. Even stoic Baki looked eager, while Fujin looked apologetic, she mouthed, "sorry it slipped out."

Scanning the crowd for any hint of a person he privately detest, Sasori was relieved to see that he was not present, "he's not here," Fujin mouthed out to him, "mission." Immediately Sasori relaxed, "well Sasori senpai," a nervous looking male jounin asked, "how did the test go?"

Sasori did not respond to the man's query, instead he spoke, "aren't you all supposed to be doing something besides gossip?"

There were groans issued from the crowd, they were expecting a show but Sasori wasn't giving them one. Sasori was feeling slightly annoyed, having survive the great shinobi wars, he was expecting the standard of sand jounin to be better than this.

A young female jounin pouted, she looked to be recently promoted from the way she was acting around him, "tell us, tell us." There was a mummer of agreement from these words.

Fujin pushed her way to the front of the crowd, "just give them something Sasori senpai or else there will be all sorts of rumours."

Sasori inwardly sighed, "….They need a lot of work," Sasori said letting his statement carry through the air. There came a stunned silence, "I need to report to the kazekage's office now," Sasori said and immediately the crowd parted allowing access, even though he was now burden with a bunch of troublesome brats, Sasori was inwardly smiling, he was sending the Kazekage Hiruko's damages bill.

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Mission room !005am

"Your late," Sasori rasped as the sand sibs arrived at the mission room, Temari frowned, looking at the clock on the wall it read 10:05, "aren't you a little too particular about time?" Temari asked.

"I told you I don't like waiting," Sasori rasped, "its irritating and a waste of time."

"I take it you never went to the public toilets do you?" Temari said her eyes sparkling with mischief, she was curious to see how much this sensei can take it before he blew it.

"Temari!" Kankuro yelled. But Sasori cut him off, "I don't" he rasped. He pushed open the door and walked in, Temari was shocked she wasn't expecting this kind of response, and their sensei was clearly full of mysteries.

"Your first mission is a delivery," Baki said handing them an unmarked scroll, "it just came in and needs someone to take care of it right away."

"What is the subject for delivery?" Sasori rasped taking the scroll. Baki gestured towards a small plain looking bag on the table; Kankuro walked over and looked a look inside, "seeds?"

Baki nodded, "at one of our outer villages five miles north from here, there is a man who requested these seeds he's name is Bunji, the objective is to go there and pass it to him."

"So in other words it's a low D ranked," Sasori rasped, "very well it's a good first mission, we'll take it."

"Um..,.." Temari looked hesitant, "may I ask a few questions?"

Baki nodded, "please do, it's alright for new Genins to ask questions about how we do things around here."

"I know I shouldn't complain, but why do I see so few shinobi around here?"

Baki sighed, "it's common knowledge, I'm surprise you didn't hear about it."

"Budget cuts from our own Wind Lord," Sasori rasped, "the hokage of Konoha convinced him to cut our budget causing mission to our country to be less than what it originally was, mission in our country are now more of a privilege since most of the jobs go to Konoha."

"Shouldn't we be doing something about this?" Kankuro demanded.

"We did," Sasori rasped, "the Kazekage has taken great lengths to increase the quality of our ninjas, he even has something interesting set up later."

"Sasori sama!" Baki exclaimed knowing that the puppet master would speak his mind anyway, "please, this is neither the time nor place."

"I'll just stand back and observe how this will go," Sasori rasped, "right then we wasted enough time lets go."

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The Kazekage looked at the file of Sasori's team, he was ashamed to admit it, but he barely knew his children, he wasn't even close to Temari and Kankuro when his wife was still alive and their relationship only grew worst when she died and Gaara was born.

There came a knock on the door, "enter," the Kazekage said straightening his robes. The door opened and Baki walked in, "here is the file you requested Kazekage sama."

"Thank you Baki," the Kazekage said taking it and opening it, immediately a picture of a young red haired young man in his teens was showed. Baki waited there respectfully.

"Yes?" the Kazekage asked with one raised eyebrow.

"May I ask respectfully," Baki coughed, "why do you need with Sasori sama's file."

The Kazekage closed the file and place it side by side with his three children's, "a sand user, a wind specialist, a puppet user and a puppet master, all of them have one thing in common," the Kazekage let out a deep sigh, "all of them long range specialist."

"…." Baki was silent.

"This team is unbalanced," the Kazekage said, "and furthermore there were reports of Sasori being mentally unstable and him never having a genin team for more than five months…"

"So you are afraid that if you send them on a C ranked mission, none of them will come back," Baki said finally, "I feel the same way, however Kazekage sama why did you place Sasori sama as the sensei if you have all these doubts?"

The fourth opened Sasori's file and took out a small slim black book, "his student records," the fourth said opening the book and flipping it around so that Baki could read, Baki walked over to the desk and took a look, he glance at the four for confirmation, "Kazekage sama…. This can't be right….."

"All students that survive his harsh training and his tests all became chunin within five months….and most of them specialise in chakra control but none of them as good in puppetry as Sasori yet."

Little did the fourth knew that his kids had taken a C ranked mission by mistake.

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The trip to the village was uneventful, Sasori was silent and focusing on not getting lost, eyes scanning the horizon for the slightest hints of the landmarks in the desert, Kankuro was still struggling from having to carry both his puppet over such long distances.Temari was the first to speak, "um sensei?"

"What?" Sasori rasped.

"Some of those rumours about you…..they're not true are they?" Temari asked.

"…….."

Taking that as a sign to continue, Temari spoke, "like you have a collection of every man you ever killed, or single handily destroyed an entire country by yourself?"

"…….We've reached our destination," Sasori said motioning towards the village, with that said he headed towards the village completely ignoring Temari's questioning.

"Oi shouldn't you at least answer my questions?" Temari demanded, she angrily kicked a large pebble at Sasori, to her surprise the pebble yelled, "OW!" in an adult male's voice.

The pebble immediately shifted to become a man dressed in a large brown cloak with a symbol of the rock on his forehead protector, "DAMN YOU CRAZY BITCH, GET THEM!!!"

Temari stood still stunned by the suddenness of the attack, meanwhile pebbles around them started to shift and become rock shinobis, seven in total, "Temari!" Kankuro yelled snapping her out of her daze, she immediately reached for her fan on her back, "KILL HER FIRST BUT MAKE SURE THE SEEDS REMAINED UNHARMED!" one of them yelled.

"Sand Funeral…." came Gaara's voice, instantly the sand captured two of them and crushed them to pieces. A puppet with three eyes, Kankuro's puppet meanwhile finished a third, all the while Temari just stood there and stared, I'm better than this! She angrily told herself, she took out her fan and yelled, "Wind scythe….."

"Stop!" Sasori's voice ordered stopping her in mid attack, "I'll take care of the rest, calm down!"

Instantly a metal tail rose out from beneath the large cloak Sasori was wearing and swiftly looped itself around one of the men, the tail gave a slight squeeze and the man shuddered and fell limp, the rest seeing that they were outnumbered fled. "I'm not letting anyone of you leave," Sasori said pulling down the mask covering his face, senbon needles flew from his mouth and hit the fleeing men as they prepared to leave.

Satisfied, Sasori walked over to inspect the damage, "perfect," he rasped, "everyone intact?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Kankuro said shaking, he attempted to sat down on the sand and immediately stood up yelping, "HOT!"

Temari managed a smile, her eyes still wide and afraid, "I'm okay."

"…….." the sand retreated back into the gourd.

"That good," Sasori said inspecting the men for any traces of their employers.

"Sensei…those men are rock nins right?" Temari finally said shaking, "what do they want with us."

"Let's find out shall we," Sasori placed one hand on the man's forehead, "MIND CONTROL SEAL."

After a few minutes of intense questioning Sasori then found out that the seeds were actually rare and valuable plants that wasn't easily available in Suna. Unknown to the Genins Sasori had a calculating look on his face.

"Sensei what does this mean?" Kankuro asked.

"It means this mission rank just went right up," Sasori rasped a sadistic tone in his voice.

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It was four days before team Sasori finally returned, they had the payment, a few extra baggage and covered in bandages.

"Where did you go?!" the fourth demanded when he was finally able to talk to Sasori alone.

"I gave them the test at the same time," Sasori said, "it was entertaining."

"You are not suppose to nearly kill them!!!" the fourth yelled, his voice was so loud as to be heard throughout the village.

Meanwhile at the sick bay an angry Temari and a half dead Kankuro have only one thing on their mind, kill Sasori.

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EXTRA:

"…..I have high expectations of those who work with me, so I will accept no excuses or slacking, be on time, complete the mission, and return to base, that will be all," Sasori rasped ignoring everybody's reaction to his words, Temari still had the doom face on, Kankuro was now waking up, and Gaara had a slight twitch on his right eye, "any questions?"

Kankuro quickly raised a hand.

"Anyone but you," Sasori rasped.

"But whhhhhhyyyyyy???" Kankuro howled.

EXTRA TWO:

"Some of those rumours about you…..they're not true are they?" Temari asked.

"…….."

"Like you killed a man with your bare hands?"

"….."

"Give a baby boy a lightning bolt scar?"

"………"

"Tried to destroy the planet?"

"……….."

Few hours later…….

"I know, you are Barney the Dinosaur!"

"Um Temari I think he's asleep," Kankuro said.

"Zzzzzzzzz"

"Damn."

TBC…..

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Tell me what you think, I have this whole new senario as to what their first B or A ranked mission will be like so it took a while. As for the Genin test Sasori set, its sort of like a pop quiz, he will just test it when you least expect it. As to why he wont let Temari use her fan, Sasori doesn't want to see a chakra-induced sandstorm in the desert that a crazed Temari was about to unleash.

Next chapter i will give you hints of what hell Sasori out through them but i wont be detailed, my weakness is training scenes.

Review me on whenever I kept the characters in canon or not, because I don't know them very well. Also I'm also creating sand version of a person that will annoy Sasori like hell, guess who is it? (grin) Winner gets an e Sasori plushie!

Till then chiao.

closedofHeart


	3. Sasori is EVIL!

Yes I do despise the fourth Kazekage, but still his attitude is more of a fear the unknown thing.

This is fanfiction.

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"Sasori," the fourth said trying to keep his voice calm, "do you have any idea why I called you here?"

The red head in question simply looked amused at the fourth's flustered expression, "you know my response to that question."

"You sent my kids to a nest full of nuken Iwa chunin to fight for themselves!" the fourth yelled loud enough for those waiting outside the office to hear.

"They survived didn't they?" Sasori said in a bored tone, "besides from the moment you told me to be their instructor I already made it clear, what happens to them is none of your concern, isn't that what you want?"

"Temari almost lost her arm!" the fourth yelled, spit flew out from his mouth to land on the floor in front of Sasori.

However Sasori saw it differently, what didn't kill you makes you stronger.

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_They had met up with the one who had commissioned them and after a few threats, Sasori received even more information about their attackers that he grew intrigued, apparently they have an unofficial base a few days travel from here. After receiving the payment (and a little extra for lying), Sasori made them took a little detour. _

"_Sensei," Temari asked as they saw him lead them off to another direction, "that's the wrong way!"_

"_We have more work to do, this is the rest of the mission!" Sasori rasped._

"_But isn't the job to deliver the seeds?" Kankuro asked a confused look on his face._

"_No," Sasori said, "our job as shinobi is to kill." Gaara immediately brighten up at this statement. "Treat this as training," Sasori rasped as they struggled to keep up, "pansy half assed jobs like delivering are only meant for konoha shinobi."_

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"You disobeyed orders," the fourth said coolly after he managed to calm down.

Sasori shook his head, "no, I only followed one of the most important rules of shinobi, never leave an enemy behind."

"Still," the fourth sighed, "you could have informed me about the renegade Iwa nins instead of taking it within yourself to kill them using am inexperienced team."

"They handled it quit well," Sasori said with one of his sadistic smiles.

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_Earlier..._

"_KILL THOSE BRATS!!!" one man yelled. Gaara easily took out any who charged at him while the rest can only watch. Temari by now was absolutely terrified, even Kankuro looked uneasy, their deaths were so sudden so unexpected, so violent, only Sasori remained unmoved by the gruesome sight, Gaara was laughing, "MORE BLOOD! GIVE ME MORE BLOOD!!!!!"_

"_Both of you," Sasori rasped, "look at this closely, this is how a shinobi is supposed to act, this is how a shinobi is supposed to die. There will be no dying of old age surrounded by your grandkids for any of us, we are meant to die in battle."_

"_SAND FUNERAL!" Gaara yelled and a man shrieked as the sand tore off his arm._

"_This is how a true shinobi exist," Sasori said coldly, "no glory, no praise will come to you, like our village name suggest we are hidden in the sand. Even through all this chaos, do you still want to be shinobi?"_

_Kankuro swallowed, Temari still looked sick, Sasori nodded this was what he expected when they see so much death, one Iwa nin has saw the three of them standing quietly away from the carnage and ran towards them screaming, "help me! You guys can stop him can you?! Please, we surrender!"_

_Instantly a long metal tail snaked out from Sasori cloak and sliced the man's head into two, he didn't even have time to scream, "we show no mercy," Sasori said smoothly as the both of them twitched at the gruesome sight, "well? I give you a choice, you can quit now and give up being a shinobi all you have to do is to walk out of this building and don't come back, be a chef or something."  
_

_Temari's fist clench, Kankuro looked dazed as Gaara's sand easily tore a man in half, "if you cant stand it, quit," Sasori said, that statement seemed to shake them out of their indecision, Temari raised a hand and clasped her fan, Kankuro immediately loosen the bandages on his puppet, "what are you saying sensei?" Temari demanded a vicious grin on her face, "we're sand shinobi!"_

"_And proud of it!" Kankuro exclaimed, both of them glance at each other with a smile, Sasori's smirk was hidden behind Hiruko, well, well looks like they aren't really brats at all, not that I will tell them that. _

"_Good," Sasori rasped, "no you two go kill them together with Gaara."_

"_HUH?" both of them exclaimed, they had identical expressions of are-you-insane directed at Sasori._

"_Teamwork," Sasori rasped, they still have a long way to go, "is also one of the rules of being a shinobi, why do you think you three are formed into a group? Gaara may be good but he can't do it alone."_

"_You're kidding?" Kankuro asked as Gaara killed a few more Iwa nins with evident pleasure on his face, "he's a one man sand machine out there!"_

"_Oh really?" Sasori asked using chakra strings to force Temari and Kankuro to move, "oh well entertain me by avoiding his sand then." With that said Sasori threw them into the fray with his chakra strings._

"_SENSEI!!!!" both of them yelled when they realised they landed right in the heart of the remaining Iwa nins. Both of them were immediately attacked from all sides._

_Alone, Sasori went towards the stairs that lead to the basement of the Iwa nins's base, he could almost imagine all the new poisons and money he could make with those ingredients the Iwa nins were storing. They passed my Genin test now to get the fee, Sasori thought smirking._

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The fourth sighed when Sasori left the room, as usual it was impossible to get any real information out of the man, he remembered interviewing his children in this very same room earlier before. The fourth knew that his kids weren't on speaking terms with him, but still he was relieved when they came at his request. His relief was immediately cut short when he saw the extent of their injuries.

One of Temari's arms was bandaged up and her body had multiple scratches and cuts that looked like they were inflicted by accident, Temari's attacks were really not meant for enclosed spaces like buildings. Kankuro had similar cuts, except he also had a large bandage wrapped around his head. Only Gaara remained unscathed and humming to himself.

They did not tell him anything more other than what was stated in the report, which made the fourth frustrated, even Temari his eldest was close to mute on the subject. However the fourth could never forget their reaction to his suggestion that they change their sensei.

"He's alright," Temari said with a shrug, her eyes unreadable, "I've learnt quit a bit from him even though he's a bit eccentric." _I'm so gonna get him later for that stunt_.

"I could also learnt much from him," Kankuro added. The fourth nodded understanding. _He threw us into that hell, he's gonna get it! But the way he threw us without any trouble, he's strong_. By now almost all traces of fanboy were gone.

Gaara however surprised him by saying, "I like him." _He's good enough to be my prey._

"…….Eeeehhhh?!" the three of them yelled when they mistook the meaning of Gaara's statement.

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Later that day……

Sasori was standing in front of a grave when a sudden blast of wind blew and he sneezed, "ah choo! Which one of those brats was talking about me?!" The strong wind continued to blow, somewhere in the distance there came a chime of bells, Sasori closed his eyes remembering, "how long ago since I remembered."

There was a long period of silence before Sasori opened his eyes, "your successor, I still despise him….but what's pass is passed……twenty years huh? Time really flies." The chime of bells sounded again, Sasori looked up at the already darkening sky, "well see you later, I still have an appointment to keep, after all….i hate to keep people waiting." Sasori left just as first traces of black touched the sky. The bell chimed again.

Long after Sasori was gone, the sound of bells still continued, a figure walked out of the shadows in which he was hiding in and walked over to the grave, he stopped directly in front of the grave itself and spoke, "its been a long time…..sandaime sama…." His long black cloak, its symbol unrecognisable in the darkness flapped about in the strong night breeze, the bell dangling from his hat chimed, _ring_.

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A few days later……..

"Don't kill me!" one of the men pleaded with Temari as she raised her fan. Temari paused, the man sighed in relief, "if I spare you….." Temari said softly.

"Yes?" the man asked cautiously.

"Do you think it will bring all the villagers you killed back?!" Temari roared and lowered the fan to deliver a bone crushing hit.

"Mercy…" the man croaked and died.

"We're lucky they all not shinobis," Kankuro said removing remains of one of his victims from inside his puppet.

Temari nodded, "yeah, unlike the previous time…."

"Don't remind me," Kankuro groaned still not forgetting the Iwa nin incident.

"We were lucky they were taken by surprise," Temari said taking part of the man's unstained clothing to remove the blood.

"Ark….." came a man's dying voice.

Both Temari and Kankuro turned to see a calm looking Gaara finishing off an opponent without hesitation, "target eliminated," Gaara informed them without looking around.

"I really hate working with him," Kankuro whispered to himself, "at least hopefully we will survive until we become chunin." Sasori had made it clear that their team will be disbanded the moment they become chunin, considering that the exams were taken twice a year, it was easy to hope that Gaara wont work with them soon.

"You know," Temari said as they followed Gaara away from the battlefield, "normally rookies teams like us wont be nominated for the chunin exams."

"But we're not really rookies right?" Kankuro said cheerfully, "I mean you worked with another team before this and I worked with another before this, both of us were only made to work with Gaara when he graduated."

"But still," Temari said, "all our mission were all Ds and the occasion low Cs and we were offen paired with other teams in order to ensure success."

"We're experienced," Kankuro said confidently, "which is why I believe we'll pass when the next exam comes around."

"Your late," Sasori rasped when the sand sibs finally reached their agreed on spot.

"Yeah," Temari said, too used to Sasori's way off greeting, she believed that in Sasori's mind everyone was always late and he was always the one to come on time.

"We've killed all of them," Gaara said in a bored tone, "these people are not even worth my time."

"This is a C ranked," Sasori said coolly, "you can expect to kill people but you can't expect them to be all shinobi."

"Fine," Gaara said, evidently he missed killing people like those Iwa nins.

"……Um sensei," Kankuro asked, "about the chunin exams…."

"You will all be taking the next one," Sasori rasped.

There was a sense of relief from among the group_, I'll have to teach them to hide their_ _emotions from others one day_, Sasori thought, "for now let's return to collect our pay."

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The fourth threw down the letter written from the wind lord in frustration, "another budget cut!" the fourth yelled, and idly he wondered whenever the wind lord was doing this out of spite.

"Report Kazekage sama!" a messenger yelled appearing at the window ledge.

"What is it?" the fourth asked, it was mostly bad news lately and the fourth was starting to dread the sight of those messengers.

"There have been reports of an S class missing nin seen inside our borders," the messenger said, "he has so far killed 14 of our shinobi, most of them are from the puppet squad and wind users, his current whereabouts are unknown."

"Damn!" the fourth cursed slamming his fist on the table, "tighten up security for the villages, make sure to do routine checks on all travellers, this man has to be stopped. Tell me which one is he and I'll notify my captains to keep a lookout for him."

"Its Yasomaru Suijin," the messenger said, " the water expert."

Gaara is useless then, the fourth thought with a sigh, he had expected to use him, "inform the hokage of fire country, tell him to send a capable team here."

"Sir?" the messenger looked confused.

"A number of our village best me have been killed by this man, at least we can use him as a chance to deride our ally's incompetence," the fourth said, "hurry!"

"Hai," the messenger saluted and left.

"What will you do now Sarutobi?" the fourth thought.

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Yasomaru Sujin was no fool, afterall one cannot be one of Iwa's few water experts by being a fool. He was also angry so far two of his three hidden bases were destroyed by sand shinobi, and judging by the wind slashes and poisoned senbon on the floor, a fan user and a puppet user. He wanted revenge for his men and he wanted it now.

He moved through the sand storm, a water bubble over his eyes trapping the sand and retaining his vision, he then spot his prey, four sand shinobi caught in the storm, three men one woman, perfect, Sujin thought, one of them had a large fan on her back. Raising his hands to form the seals, Sujin yelled, "water element, quicksand no jutsu!" Spitting the water out of his mouth, the water quickly moved under the sand towards the unsuspecting shinobi.

The four of them didnt even notice the squicksand until they were over it, adding a bit more water, Sujinwas able to suck them all down effectively burying them in sand. Sujin moved closer to them as they struggled and asked, "did you killed any Iwa shinobi recently?

One of them splat in his face, "Iwa shinobi eh? I wish we killed the whole lot of you!"

"Wrong answer," Sujin said and simply formed formed another seal to suck all four of them until there was no trace, the shifting sand will uncover his bodies later and by then he will be long gone. They are not the one, Sujin thought as he continued his journey through the endless sand.

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"The sandstorm will last awhile," Sasori informed them, as the sand team hid out in a cave, this cave has often been used by sand teams to hide out a sandstorm so it was stocked with supplies.

Temari let out a sigh, "so what are we going to do in this storm?"

Kankuro immediately un bandaged his puppet Karasu and started on repairs, Temari looked at her brother and decided to do the same for her fan, Gaara simply sat in one corner and closed his eyes in mediation. There came a slight creaking sound in Sasori's direction, Kankuro looked up and saw that a small bottle of oil was produced from inside Sasori's robes, the tail was carefully laid down in front of Sasori and he started to work on it, "you need any help?" Kankuro offer.

"No," Sasori said coolly, "the rest of my puppet is undamaged only the tail needs oiling."

"You have a puppet under there with you Sasori sensei?" Temari asked looking up with interest.

"Makes you wonder how can he fit his huge bunk, his puppet and that mother of a tail under that cloak," Kankuro joked.

"A scorpion," Gaara spoke looking at Sasori, "it is the same as with you and your name sake isn't it?"

Temari's eyes widen in surprise, Kankuro frowned a little slow on the uptake, "huh?"

"A scorpion has a hard outer shell," Temari explained, "it serves as a protection for the insides, what Gaara is trying to say is that what we seeing now is Sasori's puppet. Isn't it Gaara?"

Gaara nodded, Kankuro jaw dropped, "a puppet? All the time we've being ordered by a puppet?"

Immediately Sasori's tail snake out a pointed itself at Kankuro's throat, "never ever say that about me brat," Sasori rasped, "I have been fighting wars since before you were born."

Temari whack him on the head, "wrong baka! It means Sasori sensei is hiding inside his puppet, like Gaara'a ultimate defence."

"Geeze you don't have to be so rough Temari," Kankuro complained rubbing his head, Sasori lowered his tail curling it back towards him.

"So how long have you been a puppeteer sensei?" Temari asked.

Kankuro looked at his sensei in interest, Gaara looked bored. Feeling might as well say something about himself Sasori thought hard on what to say.

There came the some of wood creaking, "actually I became a genius puppeteer as a kid," came Sasori's voice from Hiruko, all attention was turned towards Hiruko, "I….mainly learned puppetry as a way to regain the loss of my parents in the way."

Kankuro let out a sigh, he threw another piece of their collected firewood into the fire, "it was almost the same for me, only I learnt it because my mother liked it, she used to laugh when she saw all those puppet shows, at least that's what I heard."

"…………..," Temari didn't know what to say.

"Our mother….." Gaara said suddenly, "what was she like?"

Temari winched, "well…..if one to describe her in words, she was beautiful, her hair colour was a bit like mine, only more sand like. She was also intelligent and had this sarcastic sense of humour."

"…She was an Anbu," Sasori said softly, "she like to terrorize the perverts in our village, she even set up this pervert corps, just a group of kunoichi going after peeping toms, one time she even caught the great pervert who wrote all those Icha Icha books."

"Icha Icha…." Temari frowned before remembering, "those books that father stores under the desk in his room. The orange coloured ones."

"That's right they were pervert books," Sasori said.

_OUR DAD'S A PERVERT OMG?!_ Was ringing in their minds.

Temari's eyes turned shifty, "sensei…"

"I do not read those books," Sasori said in a huffy tone, "I was in a relationship."

"With who?!" Kankuro demanded, "I didn't hear anything like this."

"….Dead," Sasori said, both Temari and Kankuro winched, "sorry," Kankuro replied.

"Was it with mother?" Gaara asked a bit curious.

"No on both counts," Sasori said hastily.

"Younger or older?" Temari asked.

"Why are you brats suddenly curious about my love life?" Sasori demanded.

"Blond, brunette or red haired?"

"I'm not answering these questions!" Sasori retorted.

"At least tell us more about you sensei, your previous introduction doesn't count," Temari said with a huff.

"If I do tell you brats anything, will you knock it off and go to sleep?" Sasori asked.

All three of them nodded vigorously.

"Older," Sasori said, immediately alarm bells started going off.

"That's so sweet!" Temari gushed.

"Eeew you like older woman?" Kankuro made a face.

"…………." There was constant silence all around.

"Did you taste her blood?" Gaara asked.

"SLEEP!" Sasori snapped.

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EXTRA:

"Report Kazekage sama!" a messenger yelled appearing at the window ledge

"Be careful!" the fourth said with alarm, " that window ledge….."

BAM!!!

"Is broken," the fourth finished lamely, those budget cuts were really getting to him.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME IN THE FIRST PLACE!" the messenger cried.

EXTRA 2:

If Kishimoto wrote fanfiction instead of owning Naruto.

BOOM! Sakura's punch destroyed the rock sending debris everywhere. Stone falling. Ending credits roll. **End of episode xxx. Extra scene with things we already know about.**

**Start of new episode.**

Sasori stared.

Deidara stared.

Naruto stared.

Sakura stared.

Chiyo stared.

Kakashi stared.

**Starting song.**

**Scene chances back to the stones falling.**

Sasori stared.

Deidara stared.

Naruto stared.

Sakura stared.

Chiyo stared.

Kakashi stared.

Scene changes to Gai who stares at his clone.

The Gai clone stares back.

**"ENOUGH OF THE STARING! JUST FIGHT ALREADY!!!" closedofHeart yelled throwing her popcorn at the screen.**

TBC…..

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Tell me if I didn't do them too OOC. I love reviews. After a few more chapters, this story will join with the chunin exam arc and Sasori will be there to enjoy the madness.

Till then chiao!

closedofHeart


	4. sandaime vs Gaara

Another update.

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"Another team was found dead today kazekage sama," Baki said handing the Kazekage the file, "it was Araki's team."

The fourth opened the file and frowned when he saw their specialities, "one of them is a wind user," the fourth said, he was beginning to see a pattern, "recall all wind users teams on patrol tell them to seal or hide their fans in scrolls, we need to reduce the causalities."

Baki nodded, "hai, I will relay that message by messenger bird."

"Kazekage sama!" another messenger appeared jumping onto another window ledge, "the team from Konoha is here."

"Send them in," the fourth said straightening his robes, before the messenger could answer the door opened. "IS THIS THE OFFICE TO THE YOUTHFUL KAZEKAGE?" yelled a man with super thick eyebrows and bobbed hair, the fourth winched.

"Sensei don't yell," Tenten said gritting her teeth, 'I think they can hear you without the yelling." Tenten immediately froze when she saw the Kazekage in his robes.

"What is it Tenten?' Neji asked and immediately got the answer when she saw the Kazekage sitting in his office, stunned, the Kazekage immediately recognise a Hyuuga when he saw the eyes.

"Did you find his office Gai sensei?" asked a young man with bobbed hair like the elder one, _are they family?_ The Kazekage thought.

"……….."

"Who are you?" the fourth asked unnerved by the older man's eyebrows, or rather the over abundance of it.

"I AM KONOHA'S GREAT GREEN BEAST MAITO GAI!" the older man yelled and did his nice guy pose, which included a thumbs up and a brilliant smile that sparkled, "I HAVE COME HERE ON THE ETERNALLY YOUTHFUL HOKAGE'S REQUEST TO HELP YOU!"

"And you three are…." The fourth asked after his ears haves recovered enough, "and please don't yell my hearing is perfectly fine."

"Lee," the Gai clone said and flashed his own nice guy pose and sparkling smile that was slightly less brilliant than Gai's.

"Tenten," the girl with the buns on her head said nodding apologetically.

"Hyuuge Neji," the white-eyed boy said with an annoyed scowl and arrogant posture, typical Hyuuga, the fourth thought.

"YOSH NOW THAT THE INTRODUCTIONS ARE DONE, TELL US ABOUT THE SITUATION KAZEKAGE SAMA!!" Gai yelled.

The fourth winched, can't the man keep it down?

--------------------------------------------------------------

After the fourth explained the situation to Gai and his team, the ever energetic Gai looked serious, totally unlike the fourth's first impression of him, "…and this man is a highly skilled water element user and he has killed several of my best Anbu, so I'm sorry after you long trip here but I believe that your team is totally unsuited for this…."

"YOSH!" Gai yelled, and fourth quickly covered his ears, "NOW IS THE TIME TO SHOW THE POWER OF TEAM NINE!!!"

"Wait…" the fourth said but his protest was unheard because of Gai's yelling, "ALRIGHT TEAM TEN, LET'S PROCEED TO CHECK OUT EVERY FAN AND PUPPET USER TEAM IN THE VILLAGE!"

"Right," the team chorus completely ignoring the fourth's protest and quickly left the room, Gai paused at the door before he left, "ah one more thing."

"Yes?" the fourth asked.

"Good day to you," Gai said and left, the door closed leaving silence.

The fourth sweatdropped, "Baki…."

"Hai Kazekage sama?"

"Does anyone respect me in sand nowadays?"

"…….Yes."

"What's with the pause?!" the fourth asked crying.

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"Temari," Kankuro said to his sister, team Sasori was currently resting having recently come back from their bandit mission, sitting in a restaurant and sipping wind's famous coffee "don't look to your left but there's a guy watching you."

Temari smiled, "is he good looking?" Temari always attracted the attention of boys, only the presence of Kankuro and Gaara ever kept them away.

"No, it's a weirdo," Kankuro replied discreetly.

"Describe him," Temari said one hand on her fan, which on the floor was right beside her.

"Bobbed hair and super thick eyebrows," Kankuro replied immediately, "wearing green spandex."

"Don't be ridiculous," Temari laughed turning to look, "there's no one in sand who looks like…..waargh!!" Temari saw the exact same face staring at her a feet inches in-front of her face.

"Are you the one?" the boy asked all serious.

"NO!" Temari yelled standing up hand on her fan, "STAY AWAY!"

"Lee!" came a fairly normal girl with her hair tied into buns and wearing a pink blouse, she whacked the boy on the head, "don't go scaring people! I'm sorry miss."

"No its alright," Temari said relaxing a bit, "I was surprised that's all."

Kankuro laughed, "hey you're really popular Temari!"

"Shut up!" Temari blushed; meanwhile Tenten also stared at the fan Temari was carrying, "what?"

"Are you a wind user?" Tenten asked.

Temari nodded, "yeah, so what?"

Lee immediately grabbed Temari by her fan arm, "come with me if you want to live!" Lee yelled causing quit a few female patrons to look their way.

"You got to be kidding me!" Temari exclaimed while Kankuro laughed accidentally spitting out his coffee, "Kankuro!"

"Oh this is rich Temari," Kankuro managed to gasped out, he too a deep breath to calm himself before speaking, "um…ha…sorry, look kid, spitting out lines from an old movie isn't going to get you the girl seriously."

"Huh?" Lee looked confused.

"Anyway," Kankuro stood up, "if you would excuse me, I got to get to the workshop to do a few repairs on my puppet. Have a nice date Temari."

"Oi Kankuro!" Temari yelled trying to get out of the boy's strong grip, why was this boy so strong? Temari thought.

"Um...wait please!" Tenten said.

"What kid?" Kankuro asked.

"Are you a puppet user?" Tenten asked.

"Yeah so?" Kankuro asked.

"Are you in the same team as her?" Tenten asked, "please answer us it is a matter of life and death."

"Of course," Kankuro said, "warrgh!" Lee had also grabbed Kankuro by the hand and wasn't letting go.

"Lee!" Tenten yelled embarrassed.

"WE MUST BRING THEM TO GAI SENSEI!" Lee yelled dragging both Sand sibs by the hand.

"Lee!" Tenten exclaimed but was stopped by a hand, Tenten turned.

"Madam the payment please," the waiter asked eyelid twitching.

"LEE I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!" Tenten yelled as she took out her own wallet to pay.

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Sasori knew it was a mistake to leave his puppet to visit the third's grave, he had a sense of bad aura heading his way. But he still did it anyway.

"Oi you the youth with the flaming hair," came a manly voice.

Sasori ignored it, "hey you, do you not hear me boy?" the voice asked again, it was getting closer.

Sasori turned to look at who was behind him and turned away just as quick, he quickly walked away because that man was a weirdo and Sasori of the red sands do not associate with weirdoes, also from the way the man was dressed he was probably a paedophile. Sasori avoided paedophilic weirdoes like the plague, somewhere in his lab Orochimaru sneezed.

"CHALLENGING ME TO RACE ARE YOU BOY? YOSH IF I DO NOT DEFEAT YOU, I WILL RUN AROUND KONOHA 500 TIMES!" the man yelled.

Sasori ran, the man followed all around Suna. "YOUR YOUTHFUL SPIRIT IS REFRESHING IN THIS VILLAGE, BOY!" the man yelled, "BUT IT WILL NOT DEFEAT ME!!!"

Sasori reached into his cloak and pulled out a scroll, Gai's eyes widen, POOF! Immediately a large wooden centipede appeared, Sasori leaped onto its back, "later!" Sasori mocked and quickly used his superb puppet skills to increase his running speed.

That was probably one of Sasori's mistakes because on seeing that the boy can use puppets, Gai ran faster, "YOSH YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY FROM ME BOY!"

Sasori moved his fingers faster; the centipede ran as if on steroids.

Gai decided to unleash his gates, he immediately turned red, "COME TO ME MUHAHAHAHAHA!" Gai laughed.

The two of them managed to run pass Lee who was still dragging Temari and Kankuro, Sasori's centipede puppet flew across their path faster than a MACH 1 motorcar.

"Oh wow a centipede variation!" Kankuro said amazed.

"MUHAHAHAHAHA!" Gai ran pass them with his red skin and glowing eyes.

"A monster!" Temari exclaimed.

"Gai sensei!" Lee yelled.

Gai stopped, "OH LEE!"

"Who are you chasing sensei?" Lee asked.

"AN EXTREMELY YOUTHFUL BOY WHO CHALLENGED ME TO A RACE!" Gai yelled, "NOW IF YOU MUST EXCUSE ME I MUST BE OFF MUHAHAHAHAHA!" Gai disappeared in the direction of the centipede.

"What are you two doing here?" Sasori rasped in his Hiruko form.

"Sasori sensei!" Kankuro exclaimed, "this…this kid here…"

"What?" Sasori rasped, "if you have time to play with kids, I suggest you rest up for your next mission tomorrow."

Lee let go of both the sand sib's arms and looked at Sasori, "you look evil," Lee said.

Temari snorted rubbing her arm for circulation while Kankuro laughed.

Sasori shrugged, "like I care what someone from Konoha thinks. Let's go you two."

With that said Sasori walked away without noticing the looks of intense gratitude directed at their sensei.

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Later when the sun went down team nine compared notes...

"In the end I didn't find the youthful boy who challenged me," Gai said at the end of the day, "what about you three?"

Neji started first, "most of the wind users in Suna are female, but most of them don't work with puppet users due to their difference on opinion, the puppets users tend to work in a group and they rarely work with wind users, I got this information from a female wind user jounin, she seems reliable."

"Yosh Tenten?"

"Um Lee and I kind of met a puppet user working together with a wind user, but Lee dragged them away left before I could get anything useful," Tenten looked embarrassed, "later I did a separate investigation and found that those two belonged to a team of long range specialist and their sensei is a legendary puppet master."

"Excellent, Lee my youthful student?"

"I followed a very evil looking sensei to a grave, the sensei just stood there for a while before leaving, he then went to the…."

"Lee!" Tenten moaned, "you didn't follow one guy the whole day did you?!"

"I was hunting the killer Tenten!" Lee said.

Neji sighed, "just because the guy looks evil doesn't mean anything, for all we know he could just happen to look that way."

"He sounded weird too!" Lee protested, Neji frowned at this, "plus he's also the sensei of a wind user and puppeteer and he made threats at them, Gai sensei he could be the killer!"

"Excellent work Lee," Gai said patting the boy on his back, "so we will investigate this sensei and prevent him from committing anymore murders."

Meanwhile….in the Kazekage's office….

"Damn I forgot to tell them the suspect's name," the fourth cursed.

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"They're following us sensei," Kankuro said not bothering to turn his back.

"Ignore them or kill them sensei?" Temari asked.

"I say kill them," Gaara said with an insane smile.

Both Kankuro and Temari sweatdropped, Sasori almost agreed with them since the larger green beast had chased Sasori around the entire village and the smaller green beast, had followed him the whole day. "No….." Sasori said after a moment's thought, he had cause several international incidents with Konoha in the past, particularly with konoha's white fang, "place one hand on me and hold on tight."

"?" but they did as was told, Gaara followed after a slight moment of hesitation.

Sasori immediately took out a scroll, and unrolled it, Gai immediately recognised it, "THEY GETTING AWAY!!!!"

"Sensei I think they misunderstood our intentions!" Tenten exclaimed, "can't we just…."

POOF! A large puppet spider appeared with Sasori on top, "cool!" Kankuro exclaimed. Inside the puppet, Sasori smirked and opened a slot in his chest, instantly hundreds of strings attached themselves to the puppet, the spider reared, "hold on brats," Sasori rasped and the spider moved quickly across the sands.

"YOSH I'LL GO AFTER THEM!" Gai yelled, "KEEP UP WITH ME!!!"

Not on your life, Sasori thought and rasped, "puppet art, hundred movement steps."

"Yaaaaah!" Temari yelled holding on for dear life as the spider moved impossibly fast leaving Gai far behind, Kankuro meanwhile was enjoying it ever though it looked like one of those poisoned legs were inches from his dangling foot. Gaara's eyes were widened in shock, while Shukaku was yelling like crazy it was enjoying this.

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Its was only an hour later did Sasori decided enough was enough, finding one of the usual sand shinobi's rest caves, he quickly released the chakra strings and the spider's movement's slowed to a crawl. Sasori then resealed the wooden spider, "we'll rest at this place for the night."

"Sensei why didn't you use that skill before in our previous missions?" Kankuro asked eyes sparkling.

"One, it requires intense concentration," Sasori rasped feeling tired, "two it consumes too much chakra, three the user will be extremely weakened after use, four your control must be perfect.

"So it's only meant as an escape technique sensei?" Kankuro asked.

"Yes," Sasori rasped, crap the effect were beginning to show, "so now I expect you three to be on guard, since I wont be able to attack very well, due to chakra drainage."

Temari nodded, "so basically what is our mission objective?"

"Destroy a dam inside one of wind's neighbouring countries, springs country," Sasori rasped, "apparently there was a dispute with one of the villages there against one of the countrie's prominent businessmen about a hot springs."

Temari eyes brighten, Sasori did not miss that look having years of dealing with females, "we'll go to one to relax after our mission," Sasori rasped, "my treat."

"Oh yeah!" Kankuro cheered, "hot springs! Never been to one before I heard they're great!"

"….What is a hot spring?" Gaara asked calmly.

"……." Both sand sibs kept quiet.

"It's a place where you sit in someplace hot and sweaty, and lie to yourself that you're enjoying yourselves," Sasori rasped, "and you will also be naked in front of others."

"Wrong!" both Temari and Kankuro yelled crossing their hands.

"Have you ever been to a hot springs before sensei?" Kankuro demanded.

"Once," Sasori grimaced inside Hiruko, "it was hell, all those bodies squashed together in one tiny space….."

"So a hot springs is a form of torture…" Gaara said, "I understand."

"Gaara a hotsprings is not like that!" Temari exclaimed.

"That what is it really like?" Gaara asked.

_Temari-never been to one only heard about it._

_Kankuro-never been to one either but hoped to try it._

_Sasori-been to one but says it was hell._

"……..It seems our end of the day discussions always turn awkward," Sasori rasped, "set up camp and rest, we'll be crossing the border tomorrow."

"Oh yeah we haven't finished the girlfriend discussion," Kankuro said.

"SLEEP!" Sasori snapped.

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"Sasori sensei are you alright?" Kankuro asked the next day, they were travelling across the sand as a slower pace then normal due to Sasori's fatigue.

"I'm fine," Sasori rasped, "everyone jump!"

Immediately all four of leaped to avoid a sudden quicksand that appeared beneath them, "heh," came an unfamiliar voice, "looks like at least one of you knows what he's doing."

Landing a few feet away Sasori looked up and saw an Iwa nin dressed in a worn out grey vest and long green pants, he was wearing arm and leg guards but they also looked worn, the Iwa nin's headband had a long scratch across it.

"Missing nin from Iwa," Sasori rasped, "the great wars are over why are you still fighting us?"

"Heh," the man snorted, "don't act all innocent with me suna shinobi, a group of you recently killed a bunch of my best men." The man grinned an unleashed a high amount of killing intent at them. Kankuro gasped while Temari whimpered, but both of them held their ground. Sasori remained unmoved and so did Gaara.

"Oh?" the Iwa nin smirked, "it seems you three kids have an excellent sensei, to teach them the horrors of death so fast.

"That pathetic amount of killing intent only works on children," Sasori rasped, "I'll show you mine." Sasori knew that if they could intimidate this man to go away, it would be for the best.

But the man remained unmoved, "it good," the Iwa nin said, "may I asked what is your great name sand nin?"

"Akasuna no Sasori," Sasori rasped.

The rock nin sneered, "the Sasori? The infamous slayers of hundreds? The rumour puppet master who could take out an entire country by himself? The S ranked shinobi whose name is right up there with Konoha's yellow flash and Konoha's white fang?"

"It seems you've heard of me," Sasori rasped unmoving.

"Heard of you?" the rock nin rasped, "everyone is rock has heard of it, there are even rumours of the great Akatsuki wishing to recruit you."

Akatsuki, Sasori thought, if this man has heard of such a secret organisation, its not good….

"Akatsuki?" Kankuro asked.

"Oh?" the rock nin sneered, "you never heard of them? Tsk tsk, shame on you Sasori." Sasori immediately released several senbon needles which the man dodged with ease, "Akatsuki is," the rock nin said as he dodged, "a great organisation which devotes itself to the extermination of Jinchurrikki. They ensure that those tailed menaces, don't have the chance to run free again."

Gaara's eyes immediately turned cold, "die."

The man immediately squawked as sand surrounded him, "oh no I'm caught what do I do?"

Gaara raised one hand, "SAND FUNERAL!"

But the sands frozed, their movements sluggish as water appeared out of seemingly no where and slowed it down. The man escaped easily.

"So you're one of them are you brat?" the rock nin mocked with a smile, "how nice, and from the technique it's the one tail Shukaku, tell me, Shukaku's team-mates don't you wish that this monster never existed?"

"SAND FUNERAL!!"

"Gaara control yourself!" Sasori rasped, "Temari, Kankuro what are you two doing? Attack him!"

"Oh…" Temari unfroze herself, Kankuro gulped.

"You two," Gaara roared, "I knew you two were going to betray me, I get rid of you too, SAND FUNERAL! SAND FUNERAL!" The rock nin smiled, his work was done, with that he body flickered out of there.

"Waargh!" Kankuro yelped barely dodging it, Temari screamed out of fear as she dodged them, both of them what would happen if the sand caught them.

This was a worse case scenario for Sasori; all pretence of teamwork had disappeared, "Gaara charging around blindly is not going to help matters at all!" Sasori yelled as he leap back avoid the sand which Gaara was using his hands to guide, "wake up you stupid brats, fighting among ourselves in the presence of an enemy is useless and it will only get us killed!"

"He's going to kill me!" Temari yelled tears streaming out of her eyes, "he's going to kill me!"

"Kankuro!" Sasori yelled as he watched his student get caught by the sand, by now the sand had also surrounded his huge puppet form.

"_I'm sorry Sasori," the third said with a sad smile on his face._ Sasori closed his eyes as he remembered, reaching into his cloak and Sasori took out a scroll different from the others, it had the kanji 'third' in front of it, "I forgive you," Sasori whispered and leaped out of Hiruko before the sand covered it completely.

POOF! Gaara's eyes widen as he sudden realized his sand was blocked, he looked around, his sensei's puppet was lying on the ground, the huge cloak had been ripped away revealing an empty space large enough for one person. Temari's eyes were widen in shock as a wall of iron had appeared protecting her from harm, Kankuro whimpered as Iron had form a protective cocoon around him prevent Gaara's infamous attack.

"Iron Sand," came a younger voice from behind Gaara, all three of them turned to see a young boy with red hair, barely older than them, one hand held chakra strings at the tip, leading to one black haired puppet in a black coloured robe.

"Impossible," Kankuro croaked, "how did he…."

"A technique similar to Gaara's…." Temari said stunned, "only one person in Suna has such a thing and he's dead."

"Sandaime Kazekage," Kankuro said softy.

"You, you stopped me from my prey," Gaara hissed, "for that you're going to die."

"Release those two first," Sasori said calmly, "then we can have a fight."

"No," Gaara hissed, the sand had now begin to cover both Kankuro and Temari again slowly crushing the cocoons of iron, "they betrayed me just like he did, for that they need to pay."

"Yashamaru was an idiot who thought that his death will make you stronger," Sasori retorted, "he wanted to have revenge for his sister so badly that he poisoned the villager's minds."

"I don't believe it," Gaara hissed, the sand continued to swirl around the cocoons, tightening, but the Iron sands held and they slowly floated into the air, Sasori shook those cocoon to remove the clinging sand.

"Its true," Sasori said, "I regret myself for not stopping him, because I too hated the fourth, hated your father, I thought it would be an ultimate form of revenge, the son killing the father," Sasori looked at Gaara in the eyes, at time like this Sasori really wished he could cry, but puppet do not shed tears like humans do, they remained cold emotionless and always perfect.

After moving those two away, Sasori dispelled the cocoons, "you two, get away as far as you can, I don't care how far, just say out of harms way," Sasori said. Both Kankuro and Temari looked indecisive, "GO!" Sasori yelled, and both of them turn and ran.

"Why do you do so much for them?" Gaara said after they disappeared, "they're not related to you."

"They are my precious students," Sasori said, "the same as you, they may be irritating noisy and sometimes cheeky but they are precious."

"Would you give up your life," Gaara asked confusion on his face, "just to save them?"

"Yeah," Sasori nodded a wishful smile on his face, "I will."

"Then die!" Gaara roared and sands surrounding them immediately started to flare up surrounding Sasori, Sasori immediately leaped onto a platform of Iron sand and used the third's magnetic power to fly above the sand's range. Gaara looked bewildered, but his expression later grew set, he copied Sasori and flew up to meet him, the sand followed.

Sasori immediately tried to think of a plan, _my attack mainly includes poisoned senbon, poisoned darts and a puppet army, not exactly good to deal with Shukaku's vessel, maybe if I had Temari's wind, no I can't ask her to fight with me, but I remember I did equip myself with elemental scrolls in case I need to fight elemental users, however I just recovered from exhaustion, not a good combination…._

"Stop dreaming and fight!" Gaara roared, by now he had gathered a ton of sand with him, large enough to create a small island, _shit_, Sasori thought, _I have to lure him away from the sand._

"You can't even reach me," Sasori mocked and flew higher diagonally, he suddenly had a brainwave which was very reckless and very stupid, _I need to get my sanity_ _checked if I pulled this off_, Sasori thought.

"Stop running!" Gaara roared following.

"Tell the stupid Tanuki to butt off first," Sasori said and winching at the childishness of his taunt, _whatever just say anything to distract him._

Gaara responded by swiping motion that lead to a claw sandy paw striking at Sasori directly, lucky Sasori used the sand to protect him, but the impact was enormous, Sasori almost felt himself being swatted out of the sky. Undaunted Sasori continued his upward climb.

"You don't even know how it feels like to have everyone see you like a monster!" Gaara roared as they flew higher.

"I do," Sasori said, "I do know very well, more than you can imagine."

Like an endless game of cat and mouse they flew higher, the sand Gaara could gather also grew steadily less, but so did Sasori's sand, Sasori made the rest retreat back into the third's puppet using only enough for him to stand on. The water vapour was slowly growing thick and Sasori knew they were reaching the end when they flew through a cloud.

"Shukaku is playing with you Gaara," Sasori said, "don't give in to it, without you he's nothing but a stupid Tanuki(racoon)."

The Shukaku in Gaara responded by completely asking Gaara to let it take over, Gaara agreed using the force sleep technique, "you stupid human!" Shukaku in Gaara roared, "I'll make you pay for this come down!"

"Lousy racoon," Sasori yelled, "kiss me "

By now the air was growing thick, Shukaku in the act of using one of his newly formed paws to swipe paused, "what the, what's happening?"

"Stupid aren't you?" Sasori asked flying out of range, "use you brain stupid racoon."

Shukaku felt himself disappearing, "how can this happen? Everything growing dark, NOOOOO!"

Now! Sasori thought and immediately flew in and punched Gaara/Shukaku right in the face, the sand weakened by the water vapour was powerless to stop it, Gaara propelled by the impact flew off the sand platform and downwards, Sasori followed, "Gaara!" Sasori yelled grabbing the boy just in time. Just then Sasori felt the last of chakra disappearing, _I knew this would happen_, Sasori thought, he immediately resealed the third, _no sense destroying it with me_, Sasori thought as they spiralled down.

It was a long fall, and Sasori was glad of the time it allowed it let him think, _I guess if I did things lots of things to save this boy from loneliness I should have done it,_ Sasori thought wondering if he can make amends by saving this boy.

Sasori looked up and saw sand particles, flying around them and the sand is powerless to stop the fall, _I still have a slight amount of chakra left_, Sasori thought, _which one should I use?_

The answer came easily, Sasori carefully took out his transport scroll, unrolling it carefully to ensure the wind didn't remove it from his hand, Sasori looked at the one he was considering, there was a kanji for 'bat' on, "hope the wind resistance will lower the speed of descent," Sasori murmured. "Who are you?" asked a weaken Gaara waking up.

"A friend," Sasori replied pressing his hand towards the seal on the scroll, "a friend who should have done this ages ago." (Saving Gaara)

"A friend?" Gaara asked still half asleep, "that's nice….look mother,….I made…my first friend…."

"There will be more," Sasori said as the bat puppet appeared, below them, "you're young Gaara, there still will be lots of chances for you to make more friends, all of them will acknowledge you and your existence, all you have to have to trust and love again."

"But what if they betray me again?" Gaara asked calmly.

Sasori smirked, "then it's their loss for not gaining such a wonderful friend."

The ground was coming up fast and their descent was still not slowing, well I guess we're screwed, Sasori thought.

"WIND ELEMENT GREAT WIND EXPLOSION!" Temari yelled.

Both Gaara and Sasori turned to look, it was Temari being held by Karasu which was being flung by Kankuro, "oi you two!" Temari yelled, "never fear big sister Temari is here to save you!"

"Temari…" Gaara said shock beyond words.

"I'm your sensei!" Sasori yelled as the wind current fro Temari greatly stopped their descent, "your senior!"

"Sasori sensei?" Gaara asked more to himself.

"Temari after Karasu and you get back to the ground, I'm going to guide the bat puppet down to the ground!" Kankuro yelled.

"Kankuro…" Gaara whispered.

"I see if I can use my last remaining chakra to create strings that could be linked to yours!" Sasori yelled, "your range isn't far enough!"

"Everyone…" Gaara said.

Suddenly Gaara felt a jerk as the bat puppet now turned kite was slowly guided to the ground, "we did it," Sasori said relieved. Gaara then noticed how cold Sasori's arm felt, it felt like fine polished wood with ice on parts of it.

"Sensei are you…." Gaara suddenly felt he should ask.

"Yeah," Sasori said calmly as they hit the ground with a thud, "but it's a secret understand?"

Gaara nodded, "don't worry you're not alone," Sasori said as Kankuro and Temari both ran to get them, "there are eight more like you in this world, and many more other who suffer the label of being not human."

"You two," Temari asked an anger mark on her head, "are you two okay?"

"Your technique almost blew by head off," Sasori said standing up and dusting himself, he held out a hand to Gaara, Gaara accepted it and stood up.

WHAM! Sasori's head tilted forward as Temari smacked him, "ow!" Sasori said rubbing his head, "what was that for?"

WHACK! "For being an idiot!" Kankuro yelled.

"Don't push your luck you two just because I'm in this form!" Sasori protested.

"You look like a little kid chibi chan," Temari teased.

"I'm not a chibi," Sasori protested, "might as well whack Gaara for his stupidity."

Gaara someone managed to look innocent in spite of his earlier rampage, there were imaginary wings out of his back and he even had a halo.

Sasori sighed, "alright, let's collect Hiruko and continue on with this mission."

"Hiruko?" Kankuro asked.

"The mission?" Temari frowned.

"On second thought let's rest and reenergize ourselves," Sasori said, "we'll talk about the mission later, but for now I really want my puppet back."

As Sasori finished that it started to rain sand, "Gaara!" Sasori yelled.

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Yasomaru Sujin sat on his couch resting from his earlier confrontation with a bunch of sand shinobis, _I was lucky they were unorganised, Sujin thought, otherwise Sasori would have easily killed me, still they're probably dead by now._

There came the sound of footsteps signifying the arrival of a messenger, "ah there you are Sujin sama," said a young woman with long grey hand and dressed in a blue kimono, "I have interesting news for you."

"What is it Ginsu?" Sujin asked smiling.

"It seems that that troublesome village that complained about the dam has hired a few sand shinobi," Ginsu said, "this is a perfect chance to test our skills."

Sujin smiled, "let them come, I met some sand shinobi today, and from my perspective they're weak."

"I understand," Ginsu smiled, "I'll relay it to the watchmen to let these sand nin come through unmolested.

"Thank you," Sujin said as he lay back into the pillow, _sent as many as you want sand shinobi, I'll kill them all._

TBC……………………

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EXTRAS:

"Kazekage sama!" another messenger appeared jumping onto another window ledge, "the team from Konoha is here."

"Be careful!" the fourth yelled, "the window ledge…."

BAM! The messenger fell onto floor and fainted.

"Is also broken," the fourth finished lamely.

"Kazekage sama might I suggest placing a warning sign on all your window ledges?" Baki asked.

"Please do," the fourth said crying.

EXTRA2:

"Kazekage sama!" another messenger appeared jumping onto another window ledge, "the team from Konoha is here."

"Be careful!" the fourth yelled, "the window ledge…."

BAM! There was dust from unread paperwork everywhere.

"IS THIS THE OFFICE OF THE YOUTHFUL KAZEKAGE SAMA?" Gai yelled opening the door, "IT'S COUGH COUGH COUGH, HACK!" Gai immediately slammed the door close.

"Dusty," the fourth finished lamely when the dust cleared.

EXTRA3:

"Kazekage sama!" another messenger appeared jumping onto another window ledge, "the team from Konoha is here."

"Be careful!" the fourth yelled, "the window ledge…."

BOOM!

"Let me help urgh!"

Gai opened the door ready to yell about his youthfulness when he saw the messenger in the arms of a man wearing Kazekage robes.

Gai immediately closed the door muttering, "too youthful young people nowadays….."

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Woah longest chapter I ever wrote, review please and let me know if anyone has wrote this kind of story of fight besides me.

The sand sibs, Sasori and green beast of konoha have eaten my brain.

Hope you like it and the humour, a Merry Christmas to my dear readers.


	5. letter from Sasori's crazy grandma

Another update, merry christmas eveybody!

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_The Sandaime Kazekage was alone walking through the outskirts of Suna, his steps were steady and unhurried, so any inhabitants of suna that he did come across only glance at him once before continuing on their way, however at the gates of Suna, the third was stopped._

"_Where are you going?" asked a young Akasuna no Sasori._

_The third smiled, "oh out."_

"_At this time of the night?" Sasori asked._

"_Of course….not," the third smiled, "I came to check on the guards."_

"_That's my job," Sasori said calmly._

"_Oh sorry," the third smilling._

"_Go back sandaime," Sasori said turning away, "tomorrow will be a busy day."_

"_I'm sorry Sasori," third said with a sad smile on his face._

"_What are you talking about third, I…." Sasori turned to reply when he saw the iron sand whirling around him._

_Blood exploded everywhere, the last thing Sasori remembered was lying on the ground bleeding from multiple wounds._

"_I'm sorry Sasori," the third said, "so sorry….but I have to do this….."_

"Why….." was Sasori's last words before he fainted from blood loss.

"SASORI SENSEI!!!" came Temari's yell.

"Wh….what?" Sasori asked when he opened his eyes, he wasn't really sleeping but mediating, it helps to regulate the flow of his chakra in his puppet body, "what is it Temari?"

"Were you actually sleeping?" Temari asked with a smirk.

"No," Sasori replied standing up from where he was sitting, "meditating."

Sasori then walked over to Hiruko, "it took me all night but I managed to adjust a bit of Hiruko and Karasu, the rest I'll have to do back at the workshop in Suna."

"Thank you sensei," Kankuro said.

"By the way sensei," Temari asked, "why do you look so young? I was expecting an old fart or something."

"It's a type of jutsu," Sasori said quickly, while Gaara looked up from where he was, "but enough of that, for now I believe I should train you three."

"But sensei," Temari said while Kankuro cheered and did a happy dance, "only Kankuro will gain from your training and perhaps Gaara due to you being able to…."

"That is a secret," Sasori said, "and I trust you three will be able to keep."

"Why is it?" Kankuro asked after he danced finished, "I mean you must have used some special technique to allow that puppet to use jutsus."

"It's a human puppet," Sasori said, "a banned form of puppetry in Suna."

"How did you…." Temari's eyes widen, "you didn't…"

"I got permission from the owner before he died," Sasori said, "that was twenty years ago, at the time when the third died and the fourth took over."

"Didn't he went missing?" Temari asked.

Sasori cursed himself, "old memories of that time weren't clear, maybe I recalled wrongly."

"Oh," Temari said and dropped it.

"Now for your training," Sasori said reaching into his cloak, "I want each and everyone of you to learn taijutsu, together with a closed range weapon."

"Like a sword or something?" Kankuro asked.

Sasori nodded, he unrolled a scroll with the kanji for 'weapons' at the top, "theses are the weapons I stole from people I've killed."

Kankuro raised a hand, "I've a question."

"Speak," Sasori said as he continued unrolling the scroll.

"How many scrolls do you have on you, and how many things did you seal into one?"

"I have a total of nine," Sasori said, "weapons, transport, battle puppets, elemental scrolls, human puppets, spare parts, poisons and their ingredients, information and the last one is for my knowledge alone. I can seal a hundred puppets into one scroll if I want to."

"You're a walking army!" Kankuro yelled greatly impressed.

"There are people out there better than me," Sasori said while the rest just look stunned, "it all depends on their respective fields, I knew of some who can deal enormous damage just by using the force of their chakra alone, there are also those so good that they just blend in which nature and you will never find them till they strike, the shinobi work is full of powerful people, which is why one must always upgrade themselves."

"Oh wow," Kankuro was greatly impressed.

"But there is always a price for power," Sasori said, "there is no such thing as power without a flaw, even for jinchurikki."

Gaara looked at Sasori, there was desire for him to know, and Sasori answered, "the term jinchurikki refers to a demon sealed inside a human, in this case a newborn child, the demons themselves are constantly seeking ways to free themselves, some of them even poison the minds of their jailors, creating illusions to torment the vessel or reliving the vessel's worse memories. In summary in return for power, the vessel sacrifices their sanity, their health, their looks or acceptance from others."

"Doesn't that mean…" Temari looked at Gaara who looked at her back.

"The Shukaku poisons the vessel's mind and the effect are worse because the vessel suffers from insomnia," Sasori looked at Gaara, "if Gaara wants to I could use my knowledge of sealing to lessen its effect on your mind allowing you to sleep even, but your power will be reduced, in return Shukaku won't disturb you."

Gaara simply could not find the words to say anything.

"A simple thank you will be nice," Kankuro teased knowing that Gaara never thanked anyone before.

"Thank you…Sensei," Gaara said.

Sasori nodded, "okay I'll take out a weapon and describe its style and uses so take note."

In the end, Temari went for a Noitachi (long katana) since she was used to fighting with two hands, while Kankuro who initially wanted a big nodaichi like his sister, went for daggers due to the fact he can use it and control a puppet at the same time. Gaara was undecided, "one part of me wanted the big blade, on the other hand I already had my sand as an attack so…."

"Twin daggers," Sasori said removing two from the scroll and tossing them to Gaara who caught them with his sand, "we'll start from there trying every single one till we find one you're comfortable with also Kankuro needs a sparing partner."

Kankuro gulped.

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"Wow so this is how a seal is supposed to be," Kankuro said, "it looks complicated."

"Take notes you two but don't touch anything," Sasori warned, "wrong seals would have some nasty results."

"Right," Temari said while Kankuro backed away from the ink pot. Gaara fidgeted slightly as Sasori drew the necessary seals on his arms and body, "can you two stand guard outside," Sasori said after a while, "the sealing process is messy and Shukaku may come out to fight as well."

Both of them nodded and left the cave.

His grandmother who did the seal was careful enough to provide instructions as to how to seal it, Sasori had studied endlessly over them wondering how he could use to help in his fighting style, he finally came up with a method that allowed Sasori to seal an insanely large amount of items, there was also the summoning style in which Sasori summoned the things he wanted from his workshop or his private lab.

"Gaara," Sasori said as he formed the hand seals needed, "its going to hurt very badly but the results will make up for it, and also when I'm done, I'm going to ask you stop using your ultimate defence."

"Why?" Gaara asked.

"Because it's making you slow," Sasori answer, "bear with it, TANUKI REPRESSANT SEAL!!!"

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"If now we will work on your stamina," Sasori said in a no nonsense attitude, "for a long range user, they mainly need good chakra control and that's it, the also have low chakra capacity so its more difficult for them to fight in time consuming battles. The purpose of a long rang user is to win the fight instantly or as quickly as possible, any delay will result in their chakra running out. However I'm going to remedy that."

"How?" Kankuro asked, "I mean doesn't chakra capacity remain constantly the same throughout your life?"

Sasori smirked, "I was getting to that," Sasori held up a chakra knife, "you can store chakra into seals and place it one yourself on an object like a battery, there also objects that boost the effectiveness and reach of your chakra, or sealing a demon into you."

"So that's why Gaara has way more chakra than us," Temari said.

"But mostly those are third person methods and aren't really reliable," Sasori said, "I only know of two methods to greatly increase your chakra permanently, one is to undergo intense surgery to increase the size of your coils, or overuse them."

"But won't we suffer from chakra drain sensei?" Kankuro asked.

"You will, but your chakra storage will increase, its sot of like muscle memory, as you grow, the body will adapt to suit the body's needs, the more often you use chakra the more your body will automatically increase your chakra coils to adapt, it's a slow process but it's less painful," Sasori held the knife in his hand and focused, the blade immediately started to lengthen with glowing blue chakra, "this is what we'll do, while Gaara and I recover you two, Kankuro and Temari will use chakra to increase the range of their respective weapons with chakra, you two will then spar learning from the taijutsu scroll I brought along, understood?"

Temari and Kankuro mock saluted, "yes sir!"

"Kids," Sasori sighed holding his hands up in mock despair, which was hilarious considering how young he looked.

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"There they are," Neji said his byakugan activated, "we finally caught up to them."

"What they're doing Neji?" Tenten asked.

"Looks like they're train…."

"Neji!" Tenten exclaimed but it was too late, Gai had ran ahead anxious to see what was their training regiment.

Sasori was watching while Temari tried to increase the length of her weapon and swing it at the same time, "you are too rigid, and your stance is all wrong, maybe this weapon is the wrong choice for you."

"Really?" Temari panted, "but I feel most comfortable with a two handed weapon."

"Hmm," Sasori paused thoughtful, "how about you spar with me? I'll use my puppets of course."

The practice spar was set outside of the cave, Kankuro had taken a seat out off harm's way, while Gaara simply sat where he wanted. Meanwhile team ten was watching.

"Its that youthful boy again," Gai whispered.

"He's kind of cute," Tenten hissed back.

"Yosh they're starting Gai sensei," Lee whispered.

"They already have seen us why are we whispering?" Neji asked mainly to himself.

Temari charged the tip of the blade unconsciously pointing downwards, "too low," Sasori pointed and dodged it easily, "and there's not enough strength from the blow, focus you chakra through your arms and release it all at once in one direction."

"Hai!" Temari said and charged again, this time her arms glowed blue, to her surprise and everyone watching she smashed the ground Sasori was standing on. BOOM!

"That strength," Gai said shocked, "it couldn't be…."

Temari smirked and continued her relentless attacks, "chakra can be used to increase the body's strength and speed in certain parts of the body," Sasori said jumping away from her attacks easily, "however it requires excellent control and knowledge of how chakra works to pull it off, also your chakra is used up very fast."

"I see," Kankuro said nodding, even Gaara looked interested.

"However all that speed and strength can be used against you," Sasori said dodging under Temari's strike, "like this. You've used too much force in the blow Temari so you are weaker to faster enemies," Sasori as he hit Temari roughly in the stomach, Temari gasped as the air left her lungs.

"Understood?" Sasori asked coolly.

Temari gasped for air, but nodded slightly, "right then Kankuro, two of you together."

Kankuro grumbled a bit, unnerved by Sasori's ruthless attack but nodded.

The two of them fought Sasori with the puppet master not giving ground at all, as a matter of fact Sasori took advantage of every opening to attack ruthlessly and explain their mistakes. Team nine could only watch in awe. Gai had tears running down his face.

"This boy, his burning spirits of youthfulness is shown from the way he teaches." Gai said crying, "Lee remember the way this boy shows his youthfulness."

Tenten sweatdropped. While Lee also had burning passion written all over his face, "hai Gai sensei," Lee took out a notebook and started writing. Neji with his byakugan had saw something he didn't expect, the boy had no chakra coils like his three students, as a matter of fact is was mainly concentrated on his heart where is branched out into many thread like the roots of a tree, _'his…his not human, and also his attack style….its like there is something missing, he cannot be going all out on them_,' Neji thought, _'what is his secret?_'

"Are you four done watching?" asked a bored voice from behind them, Neji looked back to see a boy with weirdo chakra coils as well, it was thick and had a weird colour around them, _'another weird one,_' Neji thought.

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"Oh what do you know?" Gai said laughing after he learnt the youthful boy and 'evil looking sensei' are the same person, "oh sorry I thought you were the killer that's been killing off wind users and puppet users recently."

"There's been a killer?" Sasori asked as the eight of them sat down for lunch and exchanging news, "that's news to me."

"Shh it top secret," Lee hissed.

"Ignore him," Neji said as the sand team sweatdropped, "anyway, why are you four training in the middle of nowhere."

"We're on a mission," Kankuro said munching on his share of rations, "C ranked, we can't go back until we complete it. It one of our village laws."

"That's harsh," Tenten said.

"Can't be helped," Temari said taking a biscuit and holding it out, "want one?"

"Thanks," Tenten said munching on it, "these are really good for rations."

"Thank you," Sasori said dryly.

"You prepared these?" Tenten asked amazed.

"Even my rations must have standards," Sasori said sipping one his 'special' drink to regain his chakra, "no crumbly stuff for my team."

"Do you hear something?" Gai asked suddenly, that immediately stopped all conversation, everyone listened, it was a slight creaking sound, like that of a clock ticking, Sasori stood up, "get down, what if it was a trap!" Gai hissed.

Sasori ignored the man and raised his arm, a flap of wooden wings and a small clockwork bird landed on Sasori's arm, "its from my grandmother," Sasori said still holding up his arm and looking at the note attached to the wooden bird's leg.

_Sasori, there has been a missing nin killing or people like those in your team, I don't like this, come back soon. Ps: the nin was identified as Yasomaru Sujin a water element user, check him in the bingo book. Love the beautiful maiden of love, Chiyo._

Sasori quickly wrote a reply, old hag, _I may have met him, don't worry too much and continue to play dead with grand uncle, I'm sure he loves it after you done it more than five hundreds times already. Ps: stop fishing in that pool, the fish in there all died of old age. Akasuna no Sasori._

"Weird reply," Temari asked looking over Sasori's shoulder, "are you sure you want to send a reply that's so full of sarcasm?"

"Yes," Sasori said, "if I reply any other way, she doesn't believe its me."

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A few years ago…..

"Sensei this letter is horrible redo it!"

This was the letter Chiyo received:

Dearly beloved Grandmother, I am fine and so are my adorable students. The weather here is hot as usual, missing you. Love Sasori.

"Who's been intercepting my letters?" Chiyo yelled tearing it to pieces, Chiyo quickly sent back a reply.

_Whoever the hell that wrote that sissy letter, stop it now I let me write a letter to my grandson you sick pervert. You'll be lucky if I didn't find you and castrate you on the spot. The pissed of Chiyo_.

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"You sure have weird relatives sensei," Kankuro said. "Speak for yourself," Sasori said, turning the key a few times, the wooden bird squawked and opened its beak a few times before flying off.

"Alright we'll continue with our mission tomorrow," Sasori said walking back to the cave, "train, then get some rest because we'll be travelling a lot more tomorrow."

The sand sibs nodded. "Wait wait wait!" Gai yelled raising one hand, "its still not safe for your team to travel."

"Oh?' Sasori asked, "and what do you propose?"

"We'll travel with your team," Gai said smiling.

Temari and Kankuro waited for the protest that never came, "fine," Sasori said, "as long as you don't interfere with our mission why not?"

"Eeehh?" Temari and Kankuro exclaimed.

Safe inside the cave, Sasori took out the piece paper that was hidden in the bird's mouth, Sasori, _the fourth has agreed that the invasion will commence during the chunin exams, he seems different after a ground of sound shinobi visited. Anyway, the exams will be held in konoha in a month's time, and the fourth intends to use Gaara, so make sure they are ready. Chiyo._

Sasori face turned solemn, _don't worry, they will be._

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There were three bodies being tossed out to rot in the midday sun, "these three stink!" Tayuya complained, "when was the last time they've bath?"

"Like I know" Sakon smirked, his many strong arm tossed the body wearing Kazekage robes easily into the man made ditch.

"Honestly," Tayuya snorted, "what was snake face thinking dumping the bodies here where anyone could find them?"

"He wants them to find these," Sakon replied, "but only after the invasion, he something about lowering morale."

"You should have heard the Kazekage one squeaked," Udon said as he made sure those three were dead, "he was saying something about not wanting to use Shukaku, that why Orochimaru sama killed him."

"Yeah that's him alright," Tayuya snorted planting one foot on one of the bodies faces, "always wanting to pit people against each other."

"Stupid fool," Sakon smirked at the dead body, with that said, the three sound four left.

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"Sujin sama," Ginsu said, "it seems a few rats have sneaked inside."

"Where are they from?" Sujin asked.

"Four from Konoha," Ginsu said, "four from Suna, the Suna team you have probably met before."

"Let's prepare the reception then," Sujin said smirking, "Ginsu I know you'll do a good job of delaying them."

"Hai," Ginsu said bowing and disappeared

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"That's the dam huh?" Kankuro said through a pair on binoculars, "looks solid this could take while to break."

They were spying on the dam and building surrounding it at one of the high points of the valley.

"So what's our plan of action sensei?" Temari asked.

"Gaara," Sasori rasped.

Gaara nodded and closed his eyes, an eyeball of sand was create, it floated down towards the dam. "There are quite few rock nins down there, two standing on the dam itself, five further down overseeing the construction."

"We'll go in after Gaara's sand eye comes back," Sasori said, "till then continue memorising the area."

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"There no body around," Temari said as they reached the bottom, the area appeared deserted.

"They left in a hurry," Gaara said, "through that corridor."

"So what do we do now?" Kankuro asked.

"We weaken the foundation, then create small holes in the dam wall, we don't want the water to come out all at once," Sasori said, "we need to drain it slowly."

The sand sibs nodded and went to work.

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"Konoha Whirlwind!" roared Lee as he kicked another rock nin unconscious. They had suddenly been rushed by a group of rock nin at all sides cutting them off from Sasori's team.

"Hey not bad," Ginsu mocked drawing out a scythe, it was made out of bone like material with one huge blade, "but are you prepared to face me little boy?"

"Bring it on," Lee said going back into his fighting stance.

"Wind element, blades of the wind!" Ginsu yelled swinging her scythe, gust of chakra-enhanced wind were blown at Lee who avoided the wind but barely.

"Lee!" Gai yelled, "your beloved sensei is here to save you!!"

"Lee!" Tenten looked at Lee then turned her attention to the woman, "how dare you attack our friend?"

"Attacking?" Ginsu smirked, "my dear he was trespassing."

Tenten quickly threw a couple of senbon in which Sujin easily deflected with her wind.

"We got a worst possible opponent," Neji said and activating her byakugan, "her chakra isn't normal either.

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Gaara already finished with his section of the wall was looking for his teammates, looking ahead, he saw a dim light in a building a few feet away, he slowly made his way there, he saw that there was heavy mist around the area that was slowly getting thicker, but he ignored it and continued towards the light.

"A genjutsu," Sasori said as he looked at the mist surrounding the dam, "and a special one in fact, this one can only be dispel by the defeat of the caster."

"What's with this mist?" Temari thought trying to dispel it thinking that it was a genjutsu, "its not normal."

Finished with his section of wall, Kankuro was shocked to see the mist around him, it was so thick that he couldn't see a few feet in front of him, "what the…."

Sasori suddenly realised what the opponent is thinking, "Kankuro! Temari! Gaara! This dam is going to be destroyed!" but deep down Sasori knew that they couldn't hear him.

Gaara continued to walk towards that light, he took one more step and suddenly he wasn't in the mist anymore, he was standing at the edge of the dam, looking left and right, Gaara couldn't find his teammates anywhere, or his sensei for that matter.

"It seems one little rat got away," said a familiar voice that Gaara detest, Gaara turned and saw the rock nin from a few days ago.

"You," Gaara said coldly.

"Yasomaru Sujin," Sujin smiled taking a bow, "anyway since you were kind enough to make it here, enjoy my show."

There were simultaneous explosions happening everywhere around the dam. "Nooooo!" Gaara exclaimed one hand reaching out in despair.

Then the dam started to break violently, there was water rushing out from cracks where the bombs exploded.

Ginsu smirked, as the ground started to shake, "looks like my work is done here."

"Wait!" Gai exclaimed, "what is your purpose in leading the four of us here?"

"Oh its not you four he wants," Ginsu said, "what he wants is the Tanuki."

"Huh?" Gai said still not understanding.

"Sensei the dam is breaking!" Neji yelled, "the sand team is still inside.

"Why you," Tenten rushed at Ginsu but was blocked by another rock nin, "out of the way!" Tenten yelled slashing with her kunai.

"If Sujin sama gets hold of the Tanuki, we can finally have our revenge," Ginsu said laughing, with that she disappeared in a puff of smoke. Team nine could only run as the dam broke destroying anything in its path.

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"They're dead," Sujin said cheerfully, as the dam burst sending water flooding down the valley, Gaara could only stare as the buildings got washed away.

Why? Gaara thought as he watched the debris of the dam get washed away by the current.

"Now its your turn!" Sujin said and Gaara suddenly felt himself inside a water bubble, "give up brat, you are alone is this world." He felt himself losing air and the sand was helpless to stop it.

Why? Gaara thought, after I just made friends why now?

"Kekekeke because you're weak that's why," came a familiar voice.

Shukaku, Gaara thought and closed his eyes.

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TBC……

I couldn't think of any extras here sorry.

We have finally reached the climax of the sand sibs B ranked mission, hopefully you guys liked it.

Please review and tell me if i made any mistakes thanks.

closedofHeart


	6. Sasori's hot spring hell

Shukaku fights again plus Sasori at the hot springs!

Merry christmas, here a fast present for my readers hope you liked it

And to Nakimkaze Hakkesho - I'll try not to rush, hope you enjoyed this chapter.

AlmightyblackDeath- may you get many presents!

Shaitan-good health and good luck!

Spirtrex- happiness for you, and many good reviews.

Ps: this applies to you of you good readers as well!

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Sujin watched as his water prison slowly smother the boy to death, he knew that the jinchurikki was helpless to fight due to the water surrounding him.

The boy must be half dead by now, Sujin thought as he saw bubbles escape from the boy's mouth, "anytime now….."

Suddenly Sujin saw moment, the boy had opened his eyes and Sujin was unnerved to see them a yellowish colour instead of the normal black, the Shukaku? Sujin thought panicking, but he relaxed when he remembered he still had the protection of his water, there was a whole valley full for him to use!

The boy water clearly moving now, his hands were slowly moving as if testing his mobility, "too for that brat," Sujin mocked, "now hurry up and die!"

Sujin then saw the boy stuck his arm out and gurgled something, out, what was it? Sujin wondered, what is he saying?

TRUE SAND FUNERAL

Sujin gulped as he realized what the boy was mouthing, from behind him he heard the roaring of sand, Sujin turned and saw what resembled a sand Tsunami rushing towards him, "no…" Sujin said weakly and was instantly crushed under the weight of sand. The sand continued to move and crush everything in it wake and didn't stop even after it encountered the river that the dam was supposed to stop, the waves were immediately stopped and reduced to a trickle.

After much rumbling, the sand finally stopped, there was complete silence. "Sujin!" Ginsu cried out jumping onto the sandy wasteland, anxious for a sign of her leader, there was no response except the slight shifting of sand. Ginsu wept, she didn't even noticed the sand surrounding her until it was too late, Shukaku/Gaara smirked as he rose out of the sand, "I still need more blood, die!"

"No wait stop!" came a female voice, but it was too late, the sand simply crushed Ginsu and her weapon dropped to the sandy floor with a clang.

"I can't believe it," Temari said stunned at the power of Gaara's attack, all of three of them had been lucky and smart enough to notice something was wrong with the mist before making their escape. All three of them were currently on the opposite bank were Gaara was and were watching his loss of control.

"He can't hear us now Temari," Sasori rasped, "Shukaku has completely taken over."

"So now what do we do?" Kankuro demanded, unfortunately Kankuro's voice had caught the attention of Shukaku.

"You!" Shukaku/Gaara roared glaring at Sasori, "I finally found someone I wanted to kill Akasuna no Sasori!!!"

"Oh crap," Kankuro cursed, "Gaara I mean Shukaku's really pissed."

"We'll have to defeat him before he goes into his perfect form," Sasori said climbing out of Hiruko and sealing his puppet safely into one of his scrolls.

"Perfect form?" Temari asked, "I've only heard about it, what is it about?"

Shukaku/Gaara suddenly took the sand around him and started to form an egg, "we have to go now!" Sasori yelled, "Kankuro try to poison Gaara using a a chakra reducing poison, Temari, I need you to distract Shukaku while I think of a plan."

"You don't have a plan?!" Kankuro yelled as he took out Karasu.

"Planning takes time I don't pull plan out of thin air," Sasori said, "hurry up and do as I say."

"Kankuro a combination attack!" Temari ordered raising her fan.

Kankuro nodded, he quickly pulled several chakra strings causing Karasu to open its mouth, "PUPPET ART, POISONED GAS LEVEL 1!"

"WIND ELEMENT, GREAT WHIRLWIND!"

A poisoned whirlwind quickly blew its way towards Shukaku/Gaara who growled and swiped at the wind, sand collided with wind, which caused a great explosion. "Damn you!" Shukaku yelled, "I kill you two as well!"

Meanwhile Sasori had took out two of his scrolls and was wondering which one to use, _puppets don't really work well against sand, and Shukaku is a master of wind which leaves out throwing weapons, and water is swallowed up by the sand….._

"Kankuro, Temari," Sasori said, "I've finally got a plan.

":Finally!" Kankuro yelled, "so what is it?"

"Hit him," Sasori said.

"Hit him?!" Temari felt like crying, "sensei this isn't some game, this is life and death!"

"Gaara is Shukaku medium, Shukaku is only able to take over if the medium is asleep or loses the wind to live, however since I eliminated sleep, it means that Gaara must have given up on living already," Sasori said grimly, "so we must smack him to his senses."

"Okaay," Kankuro said, "so how do we do that?"

"All of must work together but helping one another have a chance to physically attack Gaara," Sasori said, "but even with three of us, we still have a huge disadvantage due to our lack of Taijutsu."

"Leave that to us," came Gai's voice, "we're the Taijutsu specialist."

Sasori turned to see team nine standing there, looking a bit worn out but still whole.

"This by right isn't your concern," Temari said surprised, "so why are you…."

"We're allies right?" Tenten grinned, "and allies help each other."

"……." The sand was silent including Sasori, _now they're making me feel guilty_, Sasori thought, and a sandy paw exploded into their mist with a crash. All of them dodged it, barely.

"Okay now its seven against one!" Gai yelled, "don't get killed everyone!"

"Hai!" came team nine's reply.

"Aim for his head," Sasori said, taking out his battle puppet scroll, "I'll use my puppets to let you guys have a clear shot!"

POOF! Sasori summoned out ten puppets in which Kankuro drooled with envy, "Kankuro no fanboying!" Sasori snapped.

"Hai!" Kankuro nodded and used his Karasu to send a barrage of poisoned senbon at it, which Shukaku destroyed easily.

"Temari use wind to disturb Shukaku's vision!" Sasori ordered.

"Wind element, wind scythe jutsu!" Temari yelled and immediately dust blew in front of Shukaku, "puppet art, smoke bomb!" Kankuro yelled and Shukaku suddenly found it couldn't see.

Meanwhile Sasori used his puppets to hide the movement of the true attackers, weaving in and out of Shukaku's line of sight, Shukaku concentrated on hitting the puppets instead of the danger behind him.

"Now Lee!" Gai yelled, "take them off!"

"Hai sensei1" Lee said and took off his weights, unable to see the sand team only heard an explosion. BOOM!

"Did they get him?" Temari yelled as she continues to use her fan but only using her chakra to increase wind speed. Kankuro was dropping of smoke bombs like a bird pooping on a new car.

Lee faster now without his weight ran around Shukaku/Gaara and looked for an opening, through the smoke, he then saw it and used the Lotus.

BAM! Shukaku flew up but only slightly by the sand, "not yet!" Lee yelled and started a series of combination moves, BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! Shukaku flew higher and BAM!" Lee's strikes hit Gaara on the face causing sand to fall off his face, "you're finished!" Lee said and used his bandages to wrap themselves around Gaara, with that done, Lee ended that attack with a body slam to the ground, BOOM!!

The dust cleared and the sand shinobi stopped their smoke attack, Gaara lay there, cracks all over his body.

"Excellent Lee!" Gai cheered, "now all we have to do is…."

"Gai sensei!" Tenten gasped, "his still moving!"

"Byakugan!" Neji was shocked to see that..., "this is just sand he's not here, where is he…"

"I'm here kekekeke," came Shukaku's voice, all seven of them saw that instead of Gaara there was a miniature sand coloured creature a few feet away, "I congratulate on letting you get this far…"

"Gaara!" Kankuro yelled, "damn Tanuki, get out of Gaara this instance!"

"Why you," suddenly the creature roared, "I've decided, all of you will die!!!!"

BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

There was a sudden explosion, "Gaara!" Temari cried. The wind around them grew so strong that they had to retreat a few metres away. Sasori looked up, from the settling of the dust he could see a lone tail, "it really came out," Sasori said coldly, "the perfect form."

"What the, what is that sensei?" Lee asked.

"It a monster!" Tenten exclaimed.

With his byakugan activated, Neji saw that the amount of chakra gathered was too huge for any normal human, "what…what is he?"

The creatures eyes glowed a sick yellow, Sasori saw that on its forehead was Gaara, his body hung there limply as the creature moved, "I finally fully came out!" Shukaku roared, "and now die!!"

"What…what now?" Kankuro stammered, Temari just stood there stunned, her legs trembled and gave way.

Sasori decided he had no choice, "Gai..take those two and go as far as you can…"

"Surely you don't mean to fight that monster youthful boy?" Gai replied.

"I can defeat it," Sasori said calmly, "I just don't want anyone to interfere or watch me when I fight."

"But what if you die?" Tenten asked, "I mean you can't defeat it."

"Tenten," Neji said placing his hand on her shoulder, "let him be."

Gai started crying, "oi oi," Sasori looked bewildered, "why are you crying again?"

"SUCH RAMPANT DISPLAY OF YOUTHFULNESS, I MAITO GAI, CANNOT HELP BUT FEEL TOUCHED," Gai cried.

Lee also had tears running down his face, "ME TOO SENSEI, I CAN ALSO FEEL THIS GUY'S BURNING SPIRIT!"

"YOSH IF THIS BOY CANNOT DEFEAT THIS FOUL CREATURE I WILL RUN FIFTY ROUNDS AROUND KONOHA WITH MY HANDS!" Gai yelled.

"ME TOO!" Lee yelled, "AS A MATTER OF FACT I'LL DO DOUBLE!!!"

"THEN I'LL TRIPLE THAT!!!!"

"I'LL…."

"Hai hai," Tenten said walking pass them and moving towards Temari, "can you stand?"

Temari looked up, "I think I can…."

"Let's go," Neji said, "this place is about to be turned into a war zone."

"….Right," Kankuro said and looked at Sasori who smirked back.

"I'll let you watch my fights another time," Sasori said one hand on the buttons of his cloak, "and I haven't forgot about the hot springs."

"We'll meet you at the village then," Temari said smiling sadly.

Both of them quickly ran off, "sensei, Lee hurry up!" Tenten called as the crying duo.

Neji sighed and simply left, not without looking at Sasori first. Sasori looked back at Neji and nodded. Satisfied Neji then ran after the rest of the team.

Waiting for the sounds of footsteps to disappear, Sasori took time to reflect on his past.

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"_Why did you do this to me?" Sasori demanded when he finally woke up, "why didn't you let me die?"_

_His grandmother Chiyo looked at her grandson sadly, "as a medic nin and as a grandmother how can I let you die?"_

"_The third has betrayed you and this village," said the voice of the fourth, "and he is now declared a missing nin."_

"_Use the life I save to have your revenge Sasori," Chiyo said softly, "you can now change your looks if you so wish and upgrade you body to be stronger."_

"_I'll keep this face," Sasori said as he looked himself in the mirror, "I want to remind him and make him regret what he has done."_

"_We meet again third…" said Sasori after searching the third for months._

"_Sasori…but how I thought you were dead?" the third said disbelieving._

"_I will have my revenge!!!" Sasori yelled as his blade rotated faster and faster._

"_When I die make me into a puppet so that we can fight together," the third said and closed his eyes forever._

_Sasori wished he could cry, but puppet don't shed tears…._

"_We wish for you to join us, Akasuna no Sasori," said a man with orange hair and many piercing, "join Akatsuki."_

"_You're," Neji said when they were alone, "your chakra, its not human, can you tell me why?"_

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Sasori unbuttoned and tossed away his cloak, two blades immediately detached themselves from Sasori's back, the wire cord in his stomach pierced the ground and Sasori stood on it allowing him to raised his body into the air, taking one of his scrolls from his back, Sasori opened it and tossed it into the air, immediately the sky was filled with red cloaked puppets, hundreds of them all of them carrying various weapons, opening a slot in his chest hundreds of chakra strings attach themselves to the puppets.

Shukaku growled impressed, "you…you're not human at all are you?"

Sasori smirked he looked at Shukaku directly in the eye without flinching, "shut up, damn Tanuki."

Shukaku roared, using the cord Sasori propelled himself forward, "PUPPET ART, HUNDRED PUPPETS ATTACK."

"DEMONIC AIR BURST!" Shukaku roared clutching its stomach and expelling three giant air balls.

Frowning, Sasori ordered his puppets to scatter, those he cannot withdraw in time, he ordered them to join together to create a huge chakra shield.

'_I have the advantage of numbers_,' Sasori thought jumping from puppet to puppet in an attempt to get himself higher up to Gaara's level, '_but the Shukaku has size and chakra to make up for it, so I can't fight long battles. Since it has been a while since Gaara slept, all I need is to hit him hard just once to dispel Shukaku'_.

"Alright," Sasori immediately increased chakra output, "PUPPET ART, HUNDRED SIMULTANEOUS NINJUTSUS."

There were singularly multiple explosion on Shukaku's body, Shukaku roared in pain and tried to swat the puppet but they were too quick and dodged out of his reach, Sasori also made sure not to put elements that will cancel each other out next to each other.

While Shukaku continued swatting, Sasori rode one of his puppets directly onto Shukaku's head avoiding the sand which started to appear everywhere from Shukaku's body. One particularly large pile of sand roared in the shape of a mini Shukaku and leaped towards Sasori.

Using the cord, Sasori aimed for the sand in front of Gaara and propelled himself forward, the sand immediately started to creep up the cord, "this better work," Sasori said mainly to encourage himself.

Shukaku realising that he was in dangerous stopped attacking the puppets an focused directly on attacking Sasori, "stay still you pesky fly!" Shukaku roared.

"My name is Sasori," Sasori said smacking his wooden fist directly into Gaara's head, "Akasune no Sasori, remember that damn Tanuki!"

"Nooo!" Shukaku roared, " and I wanted to kill some more!"

The sand started to crack and Gaara woke up, "sensei…." Gaara said unbelieving.

"This is the second time Gaara," Sasori said as they both fell, using his chakra strings, Sasori ordered his puppet army to form a tower to catch them, "I'm making sure you're getting a major demerit for this."

Gaara smiled, the first smile he had since the suicide of his uncle, "I guess I deserved it."

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"Do you think sensei won?" Temari asked as they waited, Kankuro sighed as he sat down on one of the benches, "who knows?"

BAM! Both Kankuro and Temari turned to see a very energetic Gai, he's eyes had flames in them and his fist was on the table, "HE WILL, BECAUSE HE POSSESSES THE POWERFUL OF YOUTH!"

Both of them sweatdropped, "um….okay," Temari said. Kankuro nodded, "yeah…."

"HE WILL!" Gai yelled scaring a few chickens.

"BELIVE IN HIM YOU TWO!" Lee yelled.

"Okay dudes you need to chill," Kankuro said raising his hands.

"Sensei!" Tenten yelled embarrassed.

"I see them!" Neji exclaimed with his Byakugan active, "they alright and unscathed."

"I KNEW IT!" Gai yelled.

"THAT'S GAI SENSEI FOR YOU!" Lee announced, "HIS EYES ARE NEVER WRONG!"

"They're really noisy," Sasori complained as he heard their yelling, Gaara was leaning on him for support as they slowly made their way back, "luckily not all leaf nins are like that or I will go insane."

"Sensei.." Gaara said as Temari and Kankuro ran out to see them, "what makes you have the strength to do all those things, things like giving your life for others, what makes you strong?"

'_Hmm how to answer this?'_ Sasori thought, looking at Gaara' forehead then he remembered.

………"_I managed to save you because I love my adorable grandson," Chiyo said fondly at her young grandson._

………"_I love the people of Suna," the third said in his dying breath, "I only wanted to give them hope."_

………"_I love this village" a young boy with brown hair said proudly, "and I will do anything to protect it."_

"Love," Sasori said after a moments pause, "its all because of love, love makes you strong and gives you hope."

"Love," Gaara said thoughtfully, "love huh?"

"You two are doing something stupid again!" Temari yelled as they finally got close to Gaara and Sasori, "you really made us worried Gaara, Sasori sensei."

Kankuro walked over to Gaara, "oi lean on me, you look tired."

"Kankuro," Gaara said, "Temari, sorry."

"Oh," both same sibs look at each other.

"Its okay," Kankuro said and Temari smiled, "let's get back in okay?"

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**A little something extra, Sasori's nightmare at the hot springs!**

"This….is this place you guys chosen?" Sasori rasped sweatdropping.

"Of course!" both Temari and Kankuro grinned. "if we're going to go let's go for big sensei," Kankuro grinned.

"This is spring country's five star super deluxe with an indoor pool, all you can eat and a private spa," Sasori said reading off a pamphlet, "you two are out to bankrupt me!"

"You didn't say we have to stay at a certain place didn't you?" Temari said smiling.

Gaara didn't say anything; he simply walked through the front door.

"Oi Gaara!" Sasori yelled, "don't go in!"

"Come on youthful boy!" Gai yelled doing th nice guy pose, "let's enjoy ourselves after that tiring mission!"

"Easy for you to say," Sasori grumbled, "you're not paying."

"Thank you Sasori san," Tenten said bowing.

"Yosh! Let's go in!" Lee said running inside.

"Yes let's go!" Temari smiled an strolled in.

"Barbeque, barbeque, all you can eat!" Kankuro chatting marching in hand in hand with Karasu, his fingers working as he chat.

"Put Karasu back in!" Sasori yelled.

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"……." Sasori didn't know what to say.

"Sensei," Temari asked, "why are you hiding in the corner?"

"I'm doing repair on Hiruko," Sasori retorted.

"Um inside?" Temari asked.

"Yes!" Sasori yelled.

"Aww he's just shy," Kankuro grinned, "no need to worry sensei, it's not a mixed bath."

"I'm not coming out," Sasori snapped ",go by yourselves!"

"Gaara," Kankuro said motioning.

Sasori suddenly felt sand surrounding him inside the puppet, "I'm not going hmph!"

Forced out of his puppet by Gaara, Sasori landed on his bum with a 'thump!'

"There it wasn't do hard is it?" Kankuro smirked.

"Bullies," Sasori said, "when we get back to sand I going to put all of you through my regiment of hell."

"Now, now," Temari smiled, "this trip is for relaxing, so calm down and enjoy ourselves."

"Do I look like I'm enjoying myself?" Sasori asked wanting to go back into his puppet but found that it was covered with sand.

"I need to put my sand somewhere," Gaara said calmly.

'_They are going through hell, torture, and death by hundreds of my puppets muhahahaha!'_ Sasori thought as the sand sibs dragged him through the corridors to the springs.

"Oh look table tennis!" Kankuro said excitedly, "sensei let's play!"

"No," Sasori responded, "I'm tired and I want to sleep."

"Um okay…Temari?" Kankuro asked.

"Oh sure," Temari said, they both took a paddle and were about to play when Gai entered dressed in a yukata together with the rest of team nine.

"Team nine. Let's platy table tennis!" Gai announced, "it helping to maintain your reflexes and does your body good!"

"Hai Gai sensei!"

"Must we?" Tenten sighed.

'_Is he for real?_' Neji thought, then they saw the sand team.

"I challenge you two youths to fight against two of mine!" Gai announced.

"Ok," Temari grinned, Kankuro smirked, "we're the best double players in Suna just let you know, still want to play?"

"Neji!" Tenten said eagerly.

Neji nodded.

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"Hah!" Kankuro yelled as he swung the paddle down, "take that my paddle slam!"

CLACK!

"Not bad!" Tenten smirked, "but try my rising dragon strike!"

CLACK!

"Hurricane slash!" Temari yelled.

CLACK!

"It is fate that I will beat you two, face by Kaiten!"

CLACK!

"Oh crap," Temari cursed as both of the sand sobs couldn't return the ball and lost.

"Good game," Kankuro grinned, "but eh fate speech is totally unnecessary."

"Hmph," Neji said.

"Temari…." Gaara had stood up, "let me play."

"Oh okay," Temari said passing the paddle to Gaara.

"Two on one," Gaara said.

"Oooo confident are we big boy?" Tenten asked.

"…Serve," Gaara said.

"Haiyah!"

CLACK!

"……," BOOM! The ball bounced of Gaara's shield of sand.

CLACK!

"That's cheating!" Tenten exclaimed as the ball flew out of sight with awesome speed.

Gaara shrugged, "Now now Tenten," Temari said smirking, "Gaara can't help it, the sand has a mind of its own."

"Oh yeah?" Tenten asked smirking.

"It is fate that you two will have no chance against me," Gaara said.

"Ooo low blow," Kankuro gasped.

Neji frowned, "Byakugan!"

"Ninja Table Tennis!" Tenten yelled serving the ball the way she threw a shuriken.

CLACKCLACKCLACKCLACKCLACKCLACKCLACKCLACK!

"Ah how youthful of them," Gai said chuckling, Lee meanwhile was cheering his team on. Sasori just wanted to repair Hiruko and meditate.

"I'm leaving," Sasori said and stood up to leave, but Gai grabbed his arm, "wait."

"What now?" Sasori asked.

"I round," Gai said grinning, "the first one to get eleven wins."

"No," Sasori said but Gai held him fast.

"If you do this I…."

"How about you will not bother me again?" Sasori asked sadistically.

"Oooooooo," both sand sibs chorus.

"Shut up," Sasori said to the both of them.

"How about I give you this weapon?" Gai asked showing the bonelike scythe.

"Sensei!" Tenten protested.

"Deal," Sasori said, "hand me a paddle Kankuro."

"Oh," Kankuro said holding out his.

"Are you ready?" Gai asked smiling so widely his teeth were showing.

Sasori did not reply.

"Haiyah!" Gai yelled and slammed the ball hard.

CLACK!!!!!

CLACK!! BAM!!

The ball hit the wall behind Gai.

"Again!" Gai yelled.

CLACK!

CLACK! BAM!

Again the ball hit the wall behind Gai.

"Let me serve," Sasori said, "or this will take all day.

CLACK! BAM!

CLACK! BAM!

CLACK! BAM!

CLACK! BAM!

CLACK! BAM!

CLACK! BAM!

Gai was sweating a lot when Sasori beat him, "score 11-0," Kankuro said stunned.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Gai yelled, "HOW COULD YOU BE SO POWERFUL???"

"I train," was Sasori's answer.

"YOSH I SHALL TRAIN HARD TO BEAT YOU! YOU ARE NOW CONSIDERED ONE OF MY ETERNAL RIVALS!!!" Gai yelled.

"GAI SENSEI I SHALL FOLLOW YOU WHEREVER YOU GO!" Lee exclaimed.

"LEE!"

"GAI SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

There was a vision of an imaginary sunset and waves breaking out from the imaginary sea behind them.

"Genjutsu?" Kankuro asked as he and Temari sweatdropped.

"No," Sasori said shaking his head, "its all natural."

Sasori left the room, grateful for the green beast's diversion even if it was horrible, he suddenly fell face first into something soft, "oof!" Sasori said.

"Kyaaah, oh it's a boy," said a woman with extra large breast.

_No!_ Sasori thought, '_the curse, it's happening!'_

"Look see his red hair kawaii!" gushed another also with large breast.

"Um I'm in a hurry," Sasori said hurriedly.

"Oooo let me hug him!" a third squealed. And Sasori was surrounded by breast from all sides.

"So cute!"

"Awww!"

"Now let me hug him!"

"No fair you had your turn when he bumped into you!"

"Sensei…." Kankuro trailed off not sure whenever to turn green from envy or pale from fear.

"Damn they're all bigger than me," Temari and Tenten thought.

"What a youthful display!" Gai yelled with tears running out of his eyes.

"Amazing Sasori han!" Lee exclaimed.

_I need air_, Sasori thought, struggling to extract himself.

"Boob massacre," Kankuro said opting for the horror.

When Sasori saw an opening he immediately ran like hell running face first into, _'yes!'_ Sasori thought as he rubbed his face on whoever chest it is_, 'no boobs!!'_

"Get your face off me you horny brat," came a very manly voice.

Sasori looked up to expecting to see a very irritated and ugly dude but instead saw the owner, was an extremely feminine looking man with long blond hair with one fringe covering his left eye completely.

Sasori widened his eyes slightly, "like I want to blondie," Sasori said walking away from the blond man and going to his room, "I've got better things to do."

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"Aaaaah this is the life," Kankuro sighed a he laid his head on the edge of the bath.

"……….." both Gaara and Neji were silent, while Gai was challenging Lee to a swim race.

"I'm glad we came here don't you think?" Kankuro asked.

"…………."

"Look I know you two are the silent and cool types but a little response will be….."

"Heh heh heh," Neji was drooling, his byakugan was active at the same time.

Gaara was sitting with his eyes close and his hand raise in a seal Kankuro recognized.

"Oi no wonder!" Kankuro yelled, "no fair I wanna peek too!"

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"_We wish for you to join us, Akasuna no Sasori," said a man with orange hair and many piercing, "join Akatsuki."_

"_Now Pein," came a masculine voice, "you don't want to force the man," Sasori saw a man dressed in some kind of armour with bolts and a long scarf, he also had a weird orange mask on his face._

"_And I refuse?" Sasori asked._

_The masked man chuckled, "think about it, I'll give you time to think about it, when we meet again I'll ask you myself Sasori…."_

Sasori opened his eyes from his mediation, "I didn't expect to see you here Deidara," Sasori said to the figure who was directly behind him.

The blond man smirked, "its been a while Sasori no danna."

"Why are you here?" Sasori asked passin a sake bottle behind him, "do you know its dangerous for the two of us to be seen talking together."

Deidara sat down facing away from Sasori, "I know," Deidara said and took the sake Sasori offered, "I not that stupid hmm, as it is I'm on leave."

"I don't think Pein gives his members leave," Sasori said softly, " but enough of that, what about the information I asked you to search?"

"It was easy," Deidara said holding up his hand, on it there was ring, "the moment you become one of its top ten members doors open up for you hmm."

"You're insane," Sasori mumbled sipping his special drink.

Deidara laughed, "so are you danna, teaching? I rather do patrol duty than teach a couple of snot nose brats hmm."

"So did you find anything?" Sasori asked seriously.

"As I said before, 'they' finally have two tailed beast, the motives for the collecting of those beast is still unclear but 'they' do know the location of three of them," Deidara took a drink before continuing, "the Ichibi in suna, the Nibi in Cloud and the Kyuubi in Konoha, all they need is time to prepare before they strike."

"Which beast are you assigned to Deidara?" Sasori asked.

"The Ichibi," Deidara laughed, "which is ironic considering who's the Ichibi's sensei hmm."

"When the time comes will you do it?" Sasori asked softly.

"Who knows?" Deidara said taking another drink, he wiped his mouth on his sleeve before speaking, "if I fail to catch it, I may pay with my life hmm."

"…..Sorry," Sasori said, "maybe I should have been the one instead of you."

"Who me? I'm horrible at teaching and my village's Jinchurikki has long been taken," Deidara said grimacing, "in the end, its better if I do it, my skills are more essential to Akatsuki than yours hmm."

"Those little bombs of your are not art," Sasori said shaking his head, "they're interesting but that's about it."

"We're not going to start our age old argument are we danna?" Deidara smirked, then his face turned serious, "during the Chunin exams, there is a high chance that some of the members will attempt a retrieval, don't slack off and do something you regret hmm."

"Like losing your sister?" Sasori asked.

"We were never that close," Deidara said, "I only found out after she was taken hmm."

"Don't die on me old friend," Sasori said softly.

"Yeah don't worry danna," Deidara said standing up, "but if we ever have to face each other don't hold back hmm."

Sasori only replied by raising his bottle, which Deidara understood, with a sudden gust of wind Deidara was gone.

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TBC...

Next up...muhahahaha i'm not spoiling anything!!!

**EXTRA:**

Deidara walked into the men's changing room intending to take a soak.

"Aaaah!" screamed a guy.

"What's girl doing here?!"

"Oh #"#," cursed another.

Deidara's eyelid twitched an anger mark on his head. He raise his palm to let out a small white butterfly, "I'm a man hmm!"

BOOM!!!!

**EXTRA 2:**

"What?" Deidara asked after he undressed warping a towel around him.

"You're guy?" asked some guy.

BOOM!

"Didn't i say that before hmm?!" Deidara yelled.

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Don't we all love jokes about Deidara's gender?

Review ands rate please!


	7. Sasori's many secrets

I'm not really satisfied with parts of this chapter, sometimes writting a story is like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Not all the pieces fit.

Happy new year everbody!

Wow 2008 already?! Thank you my loyal readers!

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"_I've your first B ranked mission," said Sasori to his students who were waiting eagerly, "and it requires us to go to Ame."_

"_Really?" a young boy with brown hair cheered, "yeah bring it on!"_

"_Stop it Yura," chided a young girl with black hair tied into two buns on her head, "it could be dangerous so let wait and see what sensei has to say."_

"_Seriously I can't believe we have such a kid on our team," said a third with short, sandy hair._

"_What do you say Kutso?!!!!" Yura yelled._

Kutso, Mari and Yura, were the first genin team that Sasori ever had, but they on never returned on their first B ranked mission. The next batch of students Sasori had was subjected to special tests of his own devising so that it will never happen again.

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"You want my team to participate in the invasion?" Sasori asked coldly. He was sitting in the Kazekage's receiving chamber, around him there various elders were seated side by side the Kazekage, their eyes glittering coldly in the candlelight. Outside the wind howled as the sandstorm raged outside the Kazekage building.

"Yes Sasori," the Kazekage said, his face hidden behind his cloth mask, "the Shukaku will have a determining factor in our victory."

"They're kids," Sasori pointed out, "they lack experience, and this invasion is an S ranked mission, they may not come back alive."

"True," one of the elders spoke, "it will be a shame if Temari or Kankuro died, and they did showed so much promise. But the Shukaku and its vessel are a failed experiment on our part, if it dies in the battle so much the better."

"Wait," an old female voice spoke, "I agree with what Sasori says, it is too much for kids to handle, let them gain experience as a…."

"You are biased Shiko," another spoke, "I doubt that your opinions really matter even if you are an elder."

"We will continue with this invasion," the fourth said standing up and turning to leave, "let this invasion be a show of Suna's might."

"I need a word with you fourth," Sasori said also standing up, "in private."

"Oh there is no need," the fourth said turning to look at Sasori, "I will be happy to hear your opinions in front of the council Sasori."

"Do you even care whenever they live or die?" Sasori asked his eyes glittered dangerously.

"As long as it is for the glory of Suna," the fourth replied, "any sacrifice is necessary."

Sasori tighten his fist, turned and walked away.

"Oh by the way Sasori," the fourth said, "since you are a bit, infamous in konoha, I have choosen Baki to be their sensei on the trip to the leaf."

Sasori stopped and turned his face suspicious, "I have never went to Konoha even once, even if my students are participating in the exams, you do know that fourth. That was part of our arrangement."

"….It slipped my mind," the fourth said

Sasori continued to look suspiciously at the fourth, "you have changed a lot Kazekage, I don't remember you being so…forgetful."

"People change Sasori," the fourth replied smoothly.

"Oh? Then perhaps I should participate as a jounin sensei too, after all people change, fourth," Sasori said left the room not noticing the fourth clenching his fist slightly.

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"I have something to tell you three," Sasori said as the sand sibs met up with Sasori for their now almost ritual meeting, "it is regarding your training for the mission."

Temari gulped, yesterday their sensei had met them in a bad mood, and he had taken it out on them by making them do a one on one spar with him. It was only by Baki interrupting that the Kazekage needed to talk to them that Sasori stopped.

Earlier….

"I have decided to not only to personally nominate you three for the genin exam," the fourth said, "but to give team Sasori a special mission."

"I thought we have discuss this before," Sasori responded.

"Sasori, as a parent and as the Kazekage, I am able to overwrite any objections that anyone in this village might have," the fourth said, "and I believe that my children are more then worthy enough to become Chunin."

"How very sentimental of you," Sasori responded.

Meanwhile the sand sibs just stood there watching the verbal exchanges between the two, they had never seen their father like this. Meanwhile Gaara wanted nothing else but to kill this man, but refrain from doing so because of the presence of his siblings and sensei.

"Suna cannot afford to be sentimental," the fourth said, "which is why I want you three to participate in the invasion of konoha."

"We already have a treaty with them fourth," Sasori said, "do we want to show the world that we are backstabbers."

"Where does your loyalty lie with Sasori of the red sands?" The fourth demanded using Sasori's full title, "is it with me or is it with the leaf?"

With that said the fourth snapped his fingers and Anbu immediately filled the room, "my loyalty is to the sand," Sasori replied coldly.

"Good," the fourth said waving his hand and the assorted Anbu disappeared in puffs of smoke, "I shall now explain to you what is the reason behind the invasion. Listen well, including you Sasori kun."

Sasori did not noticed the suffix, too absorbed in his thoughts to notice, '_I need to make them stronger as soon as possible.' _

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"I have my strengths, but I also have my weaknesses," Sasori said as Temari returned to the present, "I am mainly a long range type, but I can also do taijutsu. I specialise in puppets till I'm one of the best, but in other forms of shinobi arts, my knowledge is very little, confined to how to counter these arts, in short I won't be able to teach Temari on the uses of her fan efficiently."

"So what do suggest sensei?" Kankuro asked.

"You'll be trained separately by each of us," came an old female voice.

Temari's eyes widened as she spotted a old man and old woman coming towards them, "are you…."

"Yes," Chiyo said, "my name is Chiyo, and this man here is Ebizou."

"Honourable siblings," Kankuro said, "but you two are known to be reclusive so how."

"Sasori asked us for help," Ebizou said blinking sleepily in the bright sunlight, "and since he is one of our few relatives left in this world we decided to help."

"You two don't look strong," Kankuro said, "I meant no offence but…"

Chiyo immediately disappeared from sight appearing behind Kankuro, "oh but I have a few tricks up my sleeves little brat."

Kankuro sweatdropped. Chiyo spoke chakra strings connected to Kankuro's hands, "when I was in my prime I specialise in puppets and assassinations," saying that Chiyo flipped Kankuro over and threw him to the ground Aikido style, "I can also subtly manipulate an opponent's limbs like a living doll and took down an entire castle by myself."

Kankuro groaned as he clutched his aching head, "you win."

"I was the one who trained and taught Sasori when he was young," Chiyo said a smirk as she removed the strings, "so I am more qualified to teach than him."

"Hey," Sasori interrupted, "stop showing off old hag."

"Disrespectful as ever Sasori," Chiyo retorted, "I sometimes wondered what happened to the nice boy I raised all those years."

"Now, now get along you too," Ebizou said shaking his head in despair, he then turned to look at Temari, and "my technique is in some ways like neechan's, but very different in execution. Now is there a small rock around anywhere?"

"Try the seesaw," Sasori said, "it sends a clearer message."

"Its vandalism!" Ebizou protested.

"Aww don't be such a wuss and destroy it, its breaking apart anyway!" Chiyo nagged.

Ebizou sighed, and the seesaw was immediately shattered.

"What the?!" Kankuro yelped, "that's freaky old man how the hell did you do it?"

Ebizou raised his index finger, "this."

"Huh?" Kankuro wondered whenever the old man was flipping him the bird, but since it wasn't his middle finger Kankuro decided to let it slide, "a finger?"

"It is a finger," Ebizou said, "but what happens if you focus chakra into that tiny point and use let's say a stone?" Ebizou kneel down and picked up a small pebble, "give me a target young lady."

Temari looked around, "um that sign board hanging off the Inn."

Ebizou sighed, "fine." The sign immediately started to swing violently. As the stone hit it with a loud THUNK!

"Did you see what happened Young Lady?" Ebizou asked.

Temari's eagle eyes soon spotted the difference, "there's a pebble size hole in it," she said in awe.

Kankuro immediately resolved not to fight with Temari in future if she learnt that technique.

"Flicker," Ebizou said, "a series of chakra enhanced objects will fly through the air to hit its intended target, also excellent for assassinations. There is also a even deadlier part of this skill that requires the ability to manipulate wind called the slicer."

"Still believe they're weak?" Sasori asked with a smirk.

Temari and Kankuro fervently shook their heads, while Gaara remained impassive.

"Good Kankuro I will assign you to train under the old hag for obvious reasons, Temari will train with elder Ebizou and Gaara," Sasori paused, "will continue to train with me, any questions?"

"I want to learn how to do the flicker too!" Kankuro protested.

BAM! Chiyo immediately flipped over Kankuro again, she smirked, "I will make sure you will have **no** free time to complain, I expect you to be my complete and utter training dog for these free weeks understood?"

Kankuro whimpered. Temari looked relieved that she didn't get Chiyo.

"Get acquainted with each other I got something to tell Gaara alone," Sasori said motioning towards the boy to come, "Gaara follow me."

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"There is another one like me in Konoha," Gaara repeated, eyes widening in shock.

"I have no idea how he would turn out," Sasori said solemnly, "each jinchurikki is different in its appearance, abilities and its effects on its host. He could be strong, impressively so."

"So how are you going to train me?" Gaara asked.

"We will be leaving on a short trip to one of my old hide outs," Sasori said, "there I will teach you the ways you could manipulate your sands and how the past Shukaku vessels used their power. Maybe we can come up with a style that will enable you to fight at fast speeds."

"Will you be using that puppet?" Gaara asked.

Sasori shrugged, "maybe, I don't really liked using that one, even if it is one of my most powerful."

"Was it someone you hate?" Gaara asked.

"Who knows?" Sasori asked as the winds around them started to blow stronger, "looks like we're in for another sandstorm soon."

"…………."

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"They are going ahead with their plans for the invasion," Sasori said, "they're not going to delay any longer."

"So I see," Chiyo sighed, "you picked a wonderful time to drag us out of retirement Sasori."

"We need to make them stronger, strong enough to deal with the opponents during the invasion," Sasori said, "as I recall Konoha also has a jinchurikki, and one of the strongest biju as well, the kyuubi."

"If worst comes to the worst Gaara may be forced to fight whoever it is," Chiyo continued, "I see what you are trying to tell me. You want to increase the training on Gaara but don't want to neglect Temari and Kankuro either."

"Can I count on you two?" Sasori asked seriously, "elder Chiyo, elder Ebizou?"

"I see what I can do for Temari then," Ebizou said, "since its obvious Kankuro will have to be taught by nee san."

"You make me sound so old Sasori," Chiyo complained, "one more thing Sasori regarding the Kazekage. He will be there on the third round of the exams."

"If he interferes I'll deal with him," Sasori said coldly, "for the invasion must be stopped."

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In lightning country…..

Two men dressed in the Akatsuki black cloaks with red clouds were walking down an ill-used path. One of them was a remarkably good-looking man with silver hair and pink eyes, a rarity in this country. He was complaining to his partner who was dressed in a turban and a mask so that only his white eyes showed.

"Damn it Kakuzu this is such a waste of my time seriously," the silver haired one complained, "I mean if it wasn't for you trying to catch that bounty, we could have caught up with my jinchurikki by now."

Kakuzu ignored the man in favour of reading the map, the silvered haired man responded by yanking the map out of Kakuzu's hand, "what is it now Hidan?" Kakuzu growled, "can't you see I'm trying to find our next destination?"

"To hell with you and your destinations!" Hidan snapped, "this time I will be the one choosing the destination."

"If I remember correctly, you can't read very well," Kakuzu mocked as the silver hair man struggled to read the tiny script.

"Shut up or I will stick this," Hidan threatened with his three bladed scythe, "up your already stuffed ass."

Now Kakuzu was not a patient man, he knew his partner was annoying, heck there were some days that Kakuzu believed that no one was more annoying than Hidan. He complained, he whined and he cursed just about anything. After a few minutes of Hidan trying to read the map, Kakuzu finally spoke, "pick a destination already and make sure its not someplace far or impossible like the middle of the ocean Hidan."

Some days Kakuzu doesn't understand why he even needs to humour Hidan, anyone else who swore at him this much gets killed. Then again Hidan can't be killed due to some strange bloodline, which can make him survive even his head being cut off.

"Hurry up you're slowing us down," Kakuzu said reaching out to take the map.

"Fine I pick here!" Hidan snapped pointing at a place in the centre of the map.

Kakuzu read it out loud, "Konoha in fire country, hmm…"

"Don't act all superior on me Kakuzu," Hidan retorted, when Kakuzu was like this he can be an absolutely irritating know-it-all, always criticizing Hidan for his lack of knowledge or respect.

"If I remember correctly Konoha was reportedly attacked by a tailed beast thirteen years ago," Kakuzu said, "there are also several bounties on the black market that we could hunt…..but….."

"What now?" Hidan snapped ready to be off, "see this is the reason why we're always so late, you're pulling us down Kakuzu!"

"Its Deidara and that guy's territory," Kakuzu said.

"Heh those two are pansies anyway always arguing about art this, art that, my art is better than your art, yeesh," Hidan smirked, "its even better if we can snag their Biju while we're at it."

"Might as well," Kakuzu reluctantly conceded and started to walk, "as long as I get paid."

"Is money all you ever think about Kakuzu?" Hidan demanded as he followed, "seriously one of these days you're going to hell."

"Then I'll be rich down there," Kakuzu responded and the two of them continued to bicker. It was a long trip to Konoha.

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**Beginning of the exam arc**

Konoha- seven years ago….

Hatake Sakumo, konoha's white fang opened his eyes. His eyes blinked several times to get used to the sunlight. Then he sat up clutching his head, around him lay the remains of Sake bottles, which suggested that the man had just, woke up from a night of all night drinking.

It was awhile before Sakumo's mind remembered everything, his mistakes his disgrace, his friend's death, everyone blaming him, overcome by the memories Sakumo buried his face in his hand. Sakumo had also remembered befriending a young man called Minato who later became the fourth hokage.

The fourth had praised him for doing the right thing, and for the day alone it gave Sakumo the strength to live because someone believed in him. For however many years Sakumo survived ignoring the anger in their faces, the talks behind his back. Then one day on his patrol Sakumo had met a young man with red hair, he was looking down at the ground for some reason.

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_"Who are you boy?" Sakumo asked as he leaped down to look at the boy eye to eye, "where are you from? Are you lost?"_

_The young man looked up, Sakumo was interested to see that there were two unmarked graves, the young man's eyes widened but quickly recovered, "are you Konoha's white fang?" the young man asked emotionlessly. Sakumo was stunned by the coldness in his eyes._

_"Yes," Sakumo said and had to quickly avoid several senbon that were fired out off the boy's puppet._

_"Fast!" Sakumo exclaimed, "look, I don't know who are you, but I have never met you before nor have I done you any wrong, so why are you doing this?"_

_This only served to make the young man angrier, "you, have forgotten who you've killed in this very spot?"_

_"I have killed lots of people," Sakumo responded as he dodged another barrage, "I can't possibly know them all!"_

_"You cut off their heads and paraded them to the villagers," the young man responded, and Sakumo's eyes widened, "do you remember?"_

_"You…..you can't possibly be…." Sakumo now remembered, there was a young couple in which he had killed; the both of them had surrendered begging that he spared their lives, "it was a war, people got killed left and right, it….it wasn't my fault, besides we're allies now, so you can't kill me!"_

_"Oh I know that," the young man said, and Sakumo hastily took out his chakra fang, this was ridiculous, how could he a veteran of many fights be afraid or a boy?, as the young man looked up Sakumo could see the maliciousness of his eyes, "but that doesn't mean I catch cut off a few limbs." Sakumo couldn't help it he stabbed the boy. The boy coughed as the blade slide in between his ribs._

_"You made me, it's not my fault!" Sakumo said feverishly as he let go, "its not my fault, you can't blame me for it!" The body slide to the ground and so did his puppet._

_Suddenly the body stood up and pulled the sword out of its stomach, Sakumo gaped, "what the….what madness it this?"_

_"I am a puppet you fool," the body croaked and suddenly Sakumo felt a presence behind him, "the real me is here."_

_SLASH! Sakumo screamed as he felt his right arm, his sword arm being cut off. The last thing Sakumo remembered was the searing pain, the flash of yellow and everything turned dark._

_Later, Sakumo remembered waking up in the hospital with his friend by his side, "how are you?" Minato asked, Sakumo saw that there were a few cuts on him and he waved off the nurse trying to treat his wounds, "I'm fine deal with my friend first please."_

_"Please sir, your friend is aright, also Tsunade sama needs a blood sample to test, since you just recovered from poison yourself."_

_"Poison?" Sakumo asked still a bit shaken._

_Minato grinned, "yeah you were very lucky, not many people can survive a poison like that, even Tsunade hime had to work overnight to find a cure, we almost died."_

_Sakumo smiled slightly, Minatos' smile was infectious, "you recovered pretty well," Sakumo noted, "so why aren't you in bed?"_

_Minato sighed, "I lucked out, I only got a small dose of it so I recovered pretty well."_

_"Any idea who the attacker was?" Sakumo asked._

_Minato shook his head, but Sakumo knew he was lying._

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------_

The memories of his friend managed to calm Sakumo down slightly, still clutchin his head Sakumo went to get a glass of water. The door opened, and a younger version of him appeared wearing a mask over his face, "hello dad," Hatake Kakashi said in a bored tone.

"Ah who are you? Why do you look like me?" Sakumo asked, "where am I? Where is Minato?"

Kakashi sighed, his father's mind has been slipping as of late, "you don't really need to know my name, and as for where you are, you're at home, and for sensei, he's dead dad."

"Dead?" Sakumo repeated shocked.

"Yeah killed by the kyuubi," Kakashi said one hand on the door, "just came to say hi by the way, see you dad." With that Kakashi closed the door.

It was then Sakumo remembered, the kyuubi attacking.

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_6 years ago..._

_"Everyone get back!" one of his men yelled, "we need to hold out until the fourth gets here!"_

_The kyuubi roared and leaped over one of the barricades, "hurry he's at the gates!" Sakumo yelled._

_BOOM! Sakumo looked up in the distance to see a giant toad, "Gamabunta!" cried one._

_"We're saved!" yelled another. Sakumo looked up and saw a flash of brilliant light on top of Gamabunta, he instantly felt hope and pride for his friend. When the flash disappeared Sakumo saw the body of Minato fall off Gamabunta._

_'Minato…..,' Sakumo thought, his eyes following the hundreds of others that watch their hokage fall. "No," Sakumo whispered, as the body seemed to go lower in slow_ motion, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

_It was just before the body hit the ground that Gamabunta managed to catch him with the tongue, then Sakumo saw a tiny bundle in Minato's arms._

_Namikaze Minato died that day, and when he died so did the hopes of many, including Hatake Sakumo. The buddle was later found to be a baby boy, by the name of Uzumaki Naruto._

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Somehow, something else was born that day, hate. Hate and fear for the baby that survived, especially Hatake Sakumo, because not only did his best friend and source of support died, the kyuubi was also found to have been sealed in the boy. Thus did Sakumo's obsession begin, he wanted to kill Uzumaki Naruto.

For years Sakumo waited, as the boy was a baby, he was personally taken care of by the third hokage till he was old enough to be left unattended. Sakumo had secretly tried many methods but all failed at the hokage's hands, however Sakumo was never caught. Every time an attempt failed Sakumo would drink late into the night plotting another attempt.

However today was different, instead of using poison, 'accidents' or instigating others (rarely), Sakumo decided to do it himself.

When his mind was clear after a slight rinsing of the face, Sakumo took out his old Anbu gear. Dressing up as an Anbu, Sakumo went towards the playpen where Naruto was playing under the watchful eyes of a young Anbu, Sakumo smirked under his mask, '_this must be his first assignment_.'

"You look tired Hayate," Sakumo said using his commanding voice, "take a break, hokage sama has asked me to look after him." Sakumo hopped that Hayate would not notice his missing arm.

The Anbu coughed and nodded before leaping off. Sakumo had known under surveillances that this particular Anbu always needed breaks due to his health.

Suddenly Sakumo felt a pull on his pants, "um Anbu san?" a young blood haired boy asked, his eyes the colour of the palest blue, "Anbu san?"

"What is it?" Sakumo asked, keeping his anger from his voice, '_the boy looked so much like Minato, it's a sin!'_

"May I know your name?" Naruto asked cheerfully, "because you see I really like to make friends with Anbus since they're all so nice unlike the scary adults."

"Sure," Sakumo bend down, "come closers and I'll tell it to since most people are not supposed to hear our names."

Naruto obliged moving his head closer, then he noticed Sakumo's right arm was missing, "what happened to your arm Anbu san?"

Bending forward, Sakumo was close enough to hiss into Naruto's ear, "my name is Hatake Sakumo and I am your murderer." With that said Sakumo brought out the blade he was hiding behind his back, Naruto's eyes widen as Sakumo stabbed, "goodbye demon brat," Sakumo hissed as Naruto's blue eyes dimmed. Blood splattered everywhere, Naruto in his fear grabbed Sakumo's mask off with one hand and saw the face underneath, which too was quickly covered with Naruto's blood.

"Die," Sakumo hissed as Naruto's eyes closed, "just die."

TBC…………..

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An explosive beginning to the chunin exam arc, and this time it is from Sasori and gang's point of view.

I had rewritten this chapter a few times, lost several precious data due to a virus and had to rewrite most of it for several hours, so please give reviews! The longer the better, tell me what you think, what I show improve on, reviews are drugs for all fanfiction authors!!!!!

And before you ask, the Naruto in this story will be dark, also will include slight Kakashi and Sasuke bashing and a bit of Sakura as well, but I won't over do it!

Next up is one of the most done up scenes in fanfiction, the start of the chunin exams!!!"

**Notes:**

Filcker no jutsu-

As the name suggest an object is filcked towards an opponent using very hig speeds, fast and effective.

Slicer no jutsu-

Manipulates the wind to form a blade to cut enemies into two, great from assasinations.

**Characters:**

Hatake Sakumo-

_Kakashi father who suffers from mental problems after failing a mission. He nearly died at the hands of Sasori_.

Namikaze Minato-

_The fourth hokage and Sakumo's only friend after the failed mission._

Ebizou-

_Brother of the more famous Chiyo, Ebizou has a more recessive nature than his sister and often follows her lead on decisions._

Chiyo-

_Sister of Ebizou and Sasori's grandmother, her skills as a medic nin a renown, Sasori takes his personality after her._

Younger Sasori-

_Took revenge on Sakumo when he was younger, spared him only due to Minato's interferance, the reason is unknown._


	8. the chunin exams!

This update is almost twice as long…..

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"Whatever you do, do not show off your skills," Sasori warned them when they finally entered the village, "we'll meet at the inn after I'm done with the final registrations, till then feel free to look around and familiarise yourself with your surroundings."

The sand trio nodded, frowning slightly Sasori used body flicker to head to the hokage tower.

Kankuro looked at Temari, "so what do we do now?"

Temari shrugged, "look around I guess…"

There was a sudden growling sound, both Kankuro and Temari looked at Gaara, Gaara spoke calmly, "we eat first."

Temari laughed, "sure brother of mine, I guess we should eat."

"Dango!" Kankuro yelled pointing at a shop, "I heard konoha's dango is famous!"

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"This village is different from what I expected," Kankuro said looking at the surroundings, "considering all the horror stories our senseis told us, I was expecting a little…."

"Yeah I was too," Temari let out a laugh, " this place really looks like its home to a bunch of fat and useless shinobis. Like a certain someone I know…"

Temari was carrying her large fan, which now had a few seals placed onto it, with a traveller's pouch around her waist. She also wore armguards on her wrists that were balck and had the kanji for 'strength' on them.

"Hey!" Kankuro yelled, but he was also smiling, "remember what we came here to do Temari, we can't be like this all the time. We should adopt a slightly different attitude while we're here."

Kankuro still looked the same except he now had two medium size scrolls attached vertically to his back together with something wrapped in bandages, he also now had a hidden knife up his sleeve and a metal plate sewn onto each of his fingerless gloves.

"Attitude?" Temari asked, "what are you suggesting?"

"You know to make us look more intimidating, act like gangsters, punks or funkies," Kankuro narrowed his eyes into slits and curled his lip slightly, "like this."

Temari laughed, "oh yeah reaaaally frightening Kankuro, makes you look constipated."

"What about this," Kankuro cleared his throat then started to rasp out, "you're late."

Temari immediately started laughing, "oh that's good, its almost sounds like him."

Kankuro coughed, "maybe I should lose the voice and keep the attitude. Maybe be a bit more aggressive."

"Great idea," Temari said and started laughing, Kankuro joined in as well.

"Temari, Kankuro," Gaara spoke, "why do you two keep making fun of sensei?"

Gaara's only addition to his general appearance after Sasori's training was a small scroll, attached to a leg holster where shinobi keep their shurikens and kunai.

"Its fun, and it helps to relive stress" Temari said wiping her eyes, "in a way Sasori sensei's like a kid."

"Yeah," Kankuro said, "a too serious and sadistic kid."

"That's right, there are times he will just insult you and expects to get away with it," Temari said, "and he tends to hide in Hiruko too much too."

"Maybe he's shy?" Kankuro asked smirking.

"….I'll go up that tree and get a layout of Konoha," Gaara said and leaped away.

Inside the examination registrations office Sasori was sneezing heavily, "not again….."

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"Gaara taking a long time up there," Temari said looking up.

"Yeah you're right," Kankuro walked forward until he stood in the centre of the path, "may be he's doing something else."

"Come back here you damn brat how dare you call me ugly!" yelled a female voice.

"Aiieeee! get away from me you ugly wide forehead, banshee!" yelled back a child's voice.

Kankuro turned, and the boy collided into him. BAM!

"Oof!" the boy groaned as he landed on his butt.

"That hurts," Kankuro said, angry at being bumped into by a little brat, saying that he immediately lifted the boy up by the front of his shirt, "I said it hurts little brat."

Temari sighed, "stop it Kankuro, and remember what sensei said, to us. Or else we will get punished again."

"Um sorry," the girl who first yelled said, she had long pink hair and a wide forehead, "I was joking around so…"

"Like I care," Kankuro said noticing that she had a forehead protector tied on her head like a ribbon, "I just want to play around, before anyone interferes."

Temari sighed, "fine, I wash my hands off this matter, you want sensei to kill you for doing such a childish act be my guest."

"Let go," the boy said, his legs flaying uselessly on empty air.

'_The girl over there is a Konoha genin, let's see how strong they are,'_ Kankuro sighed using his fingers, a type of finger language all Suna shinobi use them in missions, which require silence.

'_Fine, but I don't think they will be a challenge,'_ Temari replied back.

"You're very energetic are you?" Kankuro asked the boy, his finger twitching slightly, "quit struggling, its irritating."

"Can't breath…" the boy gasped.

Sakura was in shock. "Konohamaru kun!" both kids the same age as the boy yelled.

"Let go of him please," the female kid pleaded.

Meanwhile Kankuro was waiting for a reaction from the genin girl, but she wasn't doing anything just standing there.

"Pathetic," Kankuro said curling his lips more, "heh, looks like the girl over there isn't going to save you, she's just going to stand there like so much useless garbage."

The pink haired girl flinched, but didn't reply.

"Fine," Kankuro said raising his left fist, "I hate short brats anyway, guess I'll just finish him off." Saying that Kankuro attacked aiming his fist for the boy's face.

'_We are so going to get it later_,' Temari thought.

BAM! Kankuro immediately howled with pain clutching his right arm, there was a deep cut on the arm causing it to bleed heavily, the boy dropped to the floor with a thud. "Ow," Kankuro cursed as his arm bleed, "who did that?"

"I did," said a voice from behind Kankuro, Kankuro turned his head missing the rock that flew past his head by seconds, Kankuro eyes widen when he saw a hand flash out to snatch the rock missing his face by inches. It was then Kankuro saw the owner of the hand; it belonged to a boy slightly younger than him with blond hair and cold blue eyes.

Temari was impressed by his speed, while Kankuro could only watch as the boy crushed the rock effortlessly, grinding it to powder. "What do you think you are doing picking on defenceless kids…..trash?" the blond boy said.

Just then the wind started to blow, and Temari's eyes immediately saw what the boy was wearing, he was wearing a black trench coat with dark orange at the edges, there was a pattern of a red spiral on his back, he also wore a plain black shirt with dark blue pants.

His forehead protector was hung around his neck loosely and it was scratched and worn as if it was an old one, which had been through many battles. What Temari was interested to see was that the boy had three whisker marks on each cheek?

"Why you…." Kankuro gritted his teeth, and twitch his fingers slightly. But the boy disappeared from Kankuro's sight, and kicked Kankuro into Temari. Both of them managed to recover quickly, Kankuro used his chakra strings to wrap itself around the boy as he flew towards Temari. Temari leaped out of the way reaching for her fan.

"Using a combination attack?" the blond boy asked as the chakra strings wrapped around him. While Sakura who could see anything was wondering why everyone was flying about in such high speeds.

"Wrong," Kankuro said and the blond boy's eyes widen, "I have set a trap before hand in case someone was crazy enough to try and attack me head on."

Sakura's eyes widen at this statement, _'he managed to make a trap so fast?_'

"Impressive," the blond boy said as he hit some invisible chakra string and senbon needles started attacking him from the ground, "but….." POOF!

"Shit a replacement technique!" Kankuro cursed, and took out the thing attached to his back, which hit the floor with a thud.

"Kankuro, you aren't going to use 'that' are you?" Temari asked.

"I…." BAM! Kankuro flew headfirst to the ground as the boy reappeared behind him again.

"Kankuro!" Temari yelled.

"You're next," the blond boy said turning his back on Kankuro who was still lying face down. That was the boy's fatal mistake, immediately Kankuro's hands rose and separated from the main body. Sakura screamed.

"Shut up," the blond boy said coldly, "you're distracting me bitch."

"Oh now we are so in trouble!" Temari groaned as she avoided the boy's attack, "and you're forcing us to show our hand."

The hands flew towards the blond boy and started to split into senbon needles all were poisoned. The boy dodged them, but the needles followed the boy's movements.

"Shadow clone no jutsu," the blond boy said, and immediately sends one in the line of fire, the Shadow clone exploded into smoke when it hit the senbons, but the senbons continued their flight. The blond boy dodged blow after blow from the both of them easily and he used Shadow Clones as a shield without exhausting himself.

"Its been a while since I had so much fun," the blond boy said laughing manically, "but now it ends." Immediately the boy's eyes turn red and chakra started pouring out of the boy in waves, "Demo…."

"Stop it," came Gaara's voice, the blond boy stopped and looked up, his eyes widening in surprise, "you…" the blond boy said the chakra around him got reabsorbed into his body. The senbon froze and dropped to the ground. Temari took her hand off her fan.

"Kankuro, Temari," Gaara said standing upside down on a tree branch, "what do you two think you're doing?"

"Ah sorry Gaara," Kankuro said walking over to pick up his senbons, "we got a bit carried away."

"Sorry," Temari said raising her hands up, "it won't happen again."

'_Why are apologising to that guy as if he's the boss?_' Sakura thought, she then flinched, as the boy looked her way.

"I apologise for their behaviour," Gaara said, "you two are a disgrace to our village, disobeying sensei's orders like that."

"Haha," Kankruo said sweatdropping, _'if sensei hears about it, we'll get more than a scolding…..' _

'_We'll be put through a punishment from hell,'_ Temari thought with a shudder, _' we will be thrown into a ravine and expected to crawl up with one foot, if he's feeling merciful.'_

Meanwhile the blond boy seemed amused, "it seems that I keep meeting interesting people today, but I never though I'll see my own kin."

Gaara looked thoughtful at the boy's words, dissolving into sand, he reappeared beside his siblings, "let's go."

"Wait," said the boy with a smirk, "isn't it more polite for you three to tell me your names for the trouble you three put me through?"

"…………Sabaku no Gaara."

"Sabaku no Kankuro."

"Sabaku no Temari," Temari said, "yours?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," the blond boy said all smiles, the sand trio sweatdropped, he behaved different from the guy who tried to kill them.

"Wait you three are from the hidden village of sand right?" the pink haired girl asked, "even though your village are our allies, foreign shinobi still couldn't walk in here as they please, what are your reasons for being here?"

"Haruno, Haruno," Naruto said shaking his head, "so many book smarts, yet not a single clue about the world around her, they're here for the chunin exams."

"And how do you know about it Uzumaki?" the pink haired girl demanded, "all I see you do around here is either chatting with Hinata or watching bugs with Shino."

"Because it happens twice a year," Naruto said scratching his nose, "you're one to talk, I heard from Kiba that you stand around and do nothing during your first C ranked, weakling."

"……" the girl was stunned.

"Isn't that right?" Naruto said sneering, "and I haven't yet allowed you three to go yet either."

Kankuro gritted his teeth, but stayed, _'I really hate brats like him._'

"You three might one to get your guard up," Naruto said, "this village's shinobi might be weak, but there are other forces at work here, some of them more powerful than you can imagine. If you want to know more meet me alone, during the second exam."

Saying that, Naruto raised his hands, "oh yes, Haruno," Naruto looked at a certain tree, "you might want to know that your beloved Sasuke kun is sitting on that tree branch over there and looking at everything you do. I'm sure you proved yourself to be useful as always. And Uchiha, no one outside of this village really gives a shit about you either."

"Hmph," Sasuke said and leaped down from the tree, "you talk a lot for a person who only got average grades at the academy."

'He's quite good looking,' Temari thought blushing slightly.

"Grades? Heh," Naruto snorted, "anyone competent in the academy doesn't give a shit about the grades. Rookie of the year."

"Oh yeah?" Sasuke demanded going into a stance, "fight me average."

"Don't want to," Naruto said shrugging, "seriously Uchiha, let me summaries what I think of you in four words, '**not worth my time.**' If you can beat a member of the sand village maybe I'll reconsider." With that said Naruto disappeared in a flash of chakra.

"Is everyone in this village annoying and disrespectful to their seniors?" Kankuro asked Temari.

"Who knows?" Temari responded shaking her head, "we better leave, sensei's waiting."

They also disappeared using a body flicker.

Sasuke clenched his fist, everyone of them ignored him, him, from the great Uchiha clan! "Is that how you want to play it Uzumaki?!" Sasuke demanded, "fine, I'll defeat one sand nin right now!"

"Ah Sasuke kun!" Sakura yelled and ran to follow her idol.

"We're being ignored here Moegi, Udon," Konohamaru said to his friends, "but at least we aren't being bashed." Both Moegi and Udon nodded.

"So those are our competition," said a girl with long dark hair, "what do you think Dozu?"

"The sand team is strong, they haven't even show us the extent of their power, they just wanted to test the Konoha shinobi's strength," Dozu said, "its too early to judge the Uchiha but the pink haired girl is weak. So we only have to worry about the sand team and the blond Konoha brat."

"Like I care," a third one dressed in a yellow shirt said, "our target is the Uchiha, we don't need to care about the others."

"Oh is that so?" said a cheerful voice, "too bad then."

All three sound nins immediately turned to see the same blond boy from earlier, "hello," Naruto smiled, "what you discussed just now was fascinating I want to hear ll about it."

"Why you…"

"Wait Zaku!" Dozu yelled.

It ended quickly, "you three will make excellent spies," Naruto said wiping the blood off his face, "after I'm done with you." Summoning shadow clones, Naruto changed the bodies to look like ordinary household items and sent them back to his 'den.'

"Now then," Naruto said, "since I got data on the sand shinobi, I guess its time to check on the grass nins." Naruto sighed and used body flicker again.

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"Team seven, my team consist of Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke," Kakashi said, "I nominate them under the name Hatake Kakashi."

"Oh wow," said one chunin.

"They're actually allowing rookies in this year."

"One of them is an Uchiha."

"Wonder how its has been?"

"Team eight, my team consist of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto," Kurenai spoke, "I nominate them under the name Yuhhi Kurenai."

"Its him.."

"Can't believe they're allowing Uzumaki to take the exams."

"Stop it, there's a high chance he can hear you."

The third Hokage sighed, _'there will be a sorts of rumours being spread around Konoha when the nominations are done.'_

"Team ten, my ten consist of Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akamichi Chouji," Asuma said, "I nominate them under the name Sarutobi Asuma."

"Hmm they sound familiar?"

"You don't remember they the children of konoha's famous trio."

"I see them sitting at the bar drinking ever night…."

"That means all the rookies are being nominated this year."

"Very well, as you all know Genin who complete at least six missions are qualified to take the Chunin exams, but it is customary for Genin to have twice that amount of missions to take the exams," the third said, "so now I declare that the chunin ex…"

"Please wait," said Iruka, "I know these kids, they have just graduated from the academy not too long ago, its too sudden for them. What were you three thinking?"

"Iruka," the third said, "any rookie team with a nomination from their jounin can enter what is your objection?"

"They may not be ready!" Iruka said, "I mean even Gai waited a whole year before submitting his team for the exams."

"Ah sorry to burst your bubble Iruka," Asuma said, "but Gai forgotten to submit his application due to certain….self induced punishments."

"Ahahaha," Gai grinned, doing his good guy pose, "but I won't be missing it this round, I'm going to pit my team against my rivals!"

'_Oh bother, not again,'_ Kakashi said taking out his porn.

"You know every since your team came back from that A ranked mission they've been really motivated," Kurenai said, "I've even seen the Hyuuga prodigy working so hard at the logs everyday."

"I've met an extremely youthful sensei!" Gai announced, "with his flaming hair and youthful determination he has open my eyes to the world!!!!!!"

"And what's his name?" Kakashi asked not looking at Gai.

"I forgot," Gai said, "Sa….Saki or something."

The three Jounin sweatdropped, "as usual his memory for names is horrible," Asuma said.

"Just check the registration of jounins for the sand teams," Kakashi said.

"Excellent I will do that my eternal rival!!!" Gai yelled running out of the meeting room.

"Its….right here," the third said holding up a sheet of paper, but Gai was already gone.

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"The exam is divided into three sections, you all three have to do is to reach the third of the exams the preliminaries. From there when the signal is shown the mission begins," Sasori said, "Baki will take over as sensei for the exams if I'm away. Any questions?"

"What do you think the exams will consist off sensei?" Kankuro asked.

Sasori nodded, "the first one will be a written test, the second one will consist of survival, feel free to remove as many teams as you can doing this round, the final one is the preliminaries where you will have to fight your opponent to advance, but it is not necessary for you to win, all you need is a good performance, so don't go all out until the signal."

"Anything else we need to know sensei?" Temari asked.

"There is a jinchurrikki like Gaara in this village," Sasori said, "from what I heard he's an information specialist, don't take him lightly. Also there's also an Uchiha, his clan is a clan which steals ninjutsu, and they're an arrogant lot, do not show your skills in front of him."

Temari and Kankuro sweatdroppped. "And if we do?" Gaara asked.

"I'll hang you by your toes to the nearest three," Sasori said without hesitation, "or let my grandmother deal with you when we get back."

"Ahaha thank good we didn't show off at all," Kankuro said, "right Gaara?"

"…………"

"That's right," Temari replied laughing forcefully.

Sasori looked at them suspiciously, "why were you three late to the sand meeting just now?"

"Nothing," Temari and Kankuro said laughing.

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SASUKE BASHING ALERT, SASUKE BASHING ALERT, SASUKE BASHING ALERT!

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Uchiha Sasuke was a member of one of Konoha's prestigious clans, he was hailed as a prodigy a genius and was known as the rookies of year. So why was he feeling so irritated? Two words Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto gotten average scores in the academy, he had few friends all of them from shinobi clans and he wasn't popular, Sasuke was. After Naruto passed the exams and gotten into another team, Sasuke thought nothing of him. Until he got his first C ranked mission. They got into trouble with a missing nin Zabua zand Naruto's team saved them. Naruto proved to be strong, even stronger than him, and Sasuke hated that. He was the special one, not some clan-less boy.

Afterwards when they returned from the successful mission, Sasuke tried to find Naruto and fight him, but the boy remained evasive, disturbingly evasive, until now when he fought the sand nins with ease and they could do anything except dodge and shoot senbons. As a result Sasuke was confident he could beat them, so on the day of the exams he went to find them on purpose, his team Sakura and Kiba trailing behind.

"Oi Sasuke," Kiba said annoyed, "what the hell are you looking for? The exam hall's that way."

"Sauke kun, I'm sure that they're already in the classroom can't we go now?" Sakura asked.

"Hmph," Sasuke looked around, "they're not here, where are they?"

Just there Sasuke look up to see a guy wearing green spandex get kicked by a genin, Sasuke smirked, time to show off his power again.

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"You were right sensei," Kankuro yawned, as they stood in the great hall, "several examiners will be setting unauthorised test."

"It's a way to remove the weak ones happens every year," Sasori said, "you three remember the plan right?"

The sand sibs nodded. "Good then I'll be…"

"Oh look its that useless kunoichi," Kankuro said, "and that arrogant black haired brat."

"That's an Uchiha," Sasori said, "you have met him before?"

"Um just in passing," Kankuro stammered.

_'Idiot,'_ Temari thought shaking her head.

"Looks like there's someone fighting him," Kankuro said, "he looks familliar."

"Ah its that lesser green beast," Temari said waving her hand, "oi!"

"Ah, its Temari san isn't it1" Lee yelled looking up and waving back, "long time no see!"

"Yo kid are you ready to suffer a bashing?" Kankuro grinned.

"No, it will be you guys," Lee said looking up, "my team has train extensively and we have become stronger!"

"And so have we!" Kankuro yelled back

_'Being ignored again…._' Sasuke thought feeling more and more angry, '_and by them no less.'_

"Stop fooling around!" Sasuke yelled, "be serious and fight me if you want to battle."

"Hai, I apologise for that," Lee said readying his stance, "I'm only meeting up with old friends."

"My bet's on Lee," Kankuro said.

"Hey I am too," Temari said, "what about you sensei?"

"I don't bet," Sasori said solemnly.

"The Uchiha's going to lose," Gaara said, "badly."

"No he's no going to loss badly," Temari said shaking her head, "he's going to lose horribly."

"How dare you three talk bad about my Sasuke kun!" Sakura yelled.

"Konoha Whirlwind!" Lee yelled hitting the Uchiha in the back. Sauke fell to the ground.

"He scores a hit!" Kankuro yelled, "what a blow! And the Uchiha is down, what a looser."

Sasuke staggered to his feet angry that he could block the attack, and the foreign shinobi's commentary was really irritating, he immediately activated his sharingan.

"You want to bet how bones will break Temari?" Kankuro asked, "I'm betting on three."

"I'm betting on five," Temari said.

Sasori sighed, "stop being childish, bunch of brats."

"287," Gaara said, and both Temari and Kankuro sweatdropped.

"That's all the bones in his body Gaara," Kankuro said..

"Oh," Gaara said, "that's the number of bones I break when I kill someone."

'_Danger,_' Temari and Kankuro thought remembering all those times Gaara killed someone.

"Watch this boy's attack," Sasori ordered, "this was the one that he used on Shukaku."

Sasuke suddenly flew into the air and Lee appeared behind him, "let's see you dodge this." Bandages started to fly around Sasuke. But it was suddenly stop by a thin stick.

"I'm leaving," Sasori said turning away, "that annoying guy's going to pop out any second."

"That was extremely cruel youthful sensei," Gai said from behind Temari..

Kankuro was startled, 'when did he….'

"He leaped down from the ceiling and spoke before his legs touch the ground," Sasori said.

"Oh how could you do such a thing youthful sensei!" Maito Gai yelled, "not allowing me to do my cool entrance."

"Like I care," Sasori said.

"Nooooooo!" Gai yelled clutching his head and howling about how hip Sasori's attitude is.

"You three head to the classroom," Sasori said ignoring Gai, "the exam is about to begin." The sand team nodded and followed Sasori down the stairs.

Sasuke was extremely angry, everyone was ignoring him again, _'why am I ignored again? And how could I lose to that think eyebrow weirdo?'_

"Sasuke kun," Sakura spoke placing her hands on Sasuke to help him up, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Sasuke said angrily.

"You really are weak," Kankuro said as the sand team walked pass Sasuke, "weak and annoying."

"What?!" Sasuke roared throwing off Sakura's helping hand, but the sand team simply ignored him a continued to their destination. Sasori paused as the sand tea were in the act of opening the door, "revenge will get you nowhere Uchiha."

"What do you know about me?" Sasuke demanded standing up, "you're not me, and you'll never understand how I feel when everything was taken from me!"

"You're a fool," Sasori said, "you think you're the only one who has unfairness in his life?"

"Why you!!!" Sasuke ran at Sasori with the intention to kill, but was suddenly restrained by unknown means, Sasori twitched his fingers slightly and Sasuke was flipped head over heels into the air and fell face first into the concrete floor.

"Learn it yourself the hard way, Uchiha," Sasori said, then turned to his students who were watching him, "go on ahead you three, I need to go check up on something."

The sand trio nodded as Sasori formed the seals for the body flicker, Sasuke was glaring at him, "what is your name?" Sauke demanded glaring at Sasori, "tell me!!!"

"Yamada Hanatarou," Sasori said without hesitation and disappeared in a gust of wind.

"Yamada Hanatarou….," Sasuke spoke his hands clenched into fist, "I will remember you!"

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"Get off this seats," Kankuro ordered pushing a protesting leaf genin of a bench.

"But…," the leaf Genin wanted to protest but thought better of it.

"Must you always make a scene Kankuro?" Temari asked sighing, meanwhile the attentions of the genins in the room were focused on the three of them. Gaara glared at them unleashing a killing intent, which made most of them back off, meanwhile in the corner of the classroom a certain grass nin was smirking, "so those are his students eh? Interesting…"

Then the door opened and the rookie genins started coming in, and Temari watched their attire and physical appearance to determine whenever they are a threat, 'so those are rookies eh? They look too young only twelve or thirteen at most,' Temari thought, then she noticed a familiar blond, 'so he's a rookie as well, but his skills are definitely not genin, his team-mates look strong too.'

Meanwhile Kankuro was looking pissed, the blond brat was smirking at him as he spotted them, he even had the nerve to give a little wave.

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**Genin point of view…**

"Who are you waving to Naruto?" Shino asked as the blond waved cheerfully to someone in the crowd.

"One of my kin," Naruto said cheerfully before turning serious, "if you two ever meet a red haired sand nin run away as far as you can."

"Why? Naruto kun?" Hinata asked timidly.

"What did I tell you Hinata?" Naruto asked sternly.

"Ha..i….hai," Hinata stammered.

"Hinata, confidence. You never know who is gonna stab you in the back if you keep on doing that 'hit me' face," Naruto said his expression turning angry.

"Hai," Hinata managed to blurt out.

"Good," Naruto said turning backto his happy-go-lucky face again, "its good to see you guys again, Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji."

"Hi Naruto kun!" Ino said cheerfully before turning thoughtful, "did you guys seen Sasuke kun? He's rather slow isn't he?"

"Munch munch, Naruto," Chouji said through mouthful of chips, "long time no see, you too Hinata, Shino."

"You too," Shino responded.

"It is isn't it?" Hinata said using her courage to say those words without stuttering, "we haven't see each other since graduation."

"How troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, "it means all nine rookies are taking the exams."

"What? What do you mean…," Ino looked back and saw Sasuke walking in with Sakura and Kiba

"Cover your ears," Naruto cautioned to the rest of the genin team, "this is going to get noisy."

Shikamaru immediately did as was told, Naruto covered his ears with his fingers as soon as he said it, Ino shrieked, "SASUKE KUN!!!!"

"Oh gods," Kankuro cursed as the girl's cry resounded around the classroom. even Gaara winched at the sound. Temari quickly covered her ears.

"LET GO OF HIM INO PIG, HE'S MINE!"

"NO HE'S MINE FOREHEAD GIRL!"

"SASUKE'S MINE!"

"MINE!"

"MINE!"

"We get the point, fight over him later," Naruto grumbled.

"What do you say Uzumaki?!" Sakura demanded, "how could you….oh…"

All the genins in the room were glaring at the nine of them, Sakura took a step backwards, "um….uh…..sorry…"

"You look beaten up," Shikamaru said to Sasuke, "I take it you were fighting someone?"

Sasuke looked angry, "hmph."

Kiba spoke, "yeah he was, by some guy, he didn't even lift a finger and Sasuke got flipped facedown into the concrete amazing!"

"Kiba!" Sakura yelled smacking him on the head, "the guy was just lucky, Sasuke won't lose that easily."

"That's right!" Ino yelled. Akamaru growled at them, "woman," Kiba sighed, "I don't think I can ever understand them."

"Love is blind," Shino said.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, while Chouji simply continued snacking.

"You nine are really noisy for rookies," came a voice from behind them, "you should quiet down a bit, everyone in this room is tense from the waiting."

"Who are you?" Kiba asked.

"My name is Yakushi Kabuto," Kabuto said adjusting his spectacles and smiled, "you can say I'm a veteran in the exams."

"Oh?" Naruto turned to look at the boy interested, "how many times have you failed so far?"

"Six times, I've been taking them twice a years for three years now" Kabuto said looking apologetic, "this will be my seventh this year."

"That means you suck," Kiba laughed.

"Well that's true," Kabuto said smiling, "anyway, Naruto kun, how much data do you have on the genins taking the exam this year?"

"Its seems my reputation is well known," Naruto said taking out a deck of cards, "but mine is not as complete as yours Kabuto san, why not compare decks"

Kabuto grinned and took out his deck of cards, "my cards contain the number of genins from each of the shinobi villages and their info, I also have information like how many missions they completed so far."

"Interesting," Naruto said, "unfortunately my cards focus on the jounin senseis of the genin teams, mine included, however I respect her too much to display her age and personal information."

"Wow," Ino said, "can you show me Uchiha Sasuke?"

Kabuto grinned and took out a card from his desk and focused his chakra into it, the card immediately turned from blank to having a picture, a graph and the pictured of the people on his team.

"Uchiha Sasuke, this year's rookie of the year, he's pretty much an all rounder with a wide range of skills, he has so far done, 11 D ranks and what's this an A ranked? Interesting, his sensei is Hatake Kakashi, his teammates are Haruno Sakura and Inuzuka Kiba."

"Wow, I knew it Sasuke kun is strong!" Ino squealed in delight.

Naruto smiled and took out his card, "Hatake Kakashi, also known as the copy ninja Kakashi, known to have copied over a thousand jutsu, I won't go into detail into how many missions he has, let's just say he used to be in Anbu. His father is one of Konoha's most famous shinobis, known as Konoha's white fang, that's it."

"Impressive Naruto kun," Kabuto grinned.

"You too," Naruto grinned back.

"The tension here seems worst than before," Shikamaru grumbled, "how troublesome."

"I want information on Rock Lee, Sabaku no Gaara, Uzumaki Naruto," Sasuke said, "and Yamada Hanatarou."

Both Kabuto and Naruto blinked, Naruto was the first to speak, "I didn't know you read manga Sasuke." The rest of the male rookies in the genin teams snickered except Shino.

The sand team looked up interested, "wonder who's that?" Temari whispered.

"It's a character from a manga," Kankuro replied back.

"I don't," Sasuke said coldly.

Naruto looked horrified, "what, you've never read Bleach?!"

"Never mind Naruto kun," Kabuto said encouragingly, he took out three cards and place them on the floor.

"Let's start with Rock Lee, he has completed 26 D ranked missions and 13 C ranked missions and wow an A ranked mission as well, his taijutsu is excellent and he has improved drastically over the past year but he has no other skills worth mentioning, his sensei is Maito Gai an eccentric taijutsu specialist, but highly skilled none the less, his teammates included last year's rookie of the year Hyuuga Neji."

"Hyuuga, that means," Naruto looked at Hinata who blushed, "interesting, as for me." Naruto took out a card, "ok Maito Gai. Self dubbed as Konoha's green beast, a genius in the taijutsu field, he often gets into duels with Kakashi and is currently in the lead. Lee imitates his sensei's dress sense."

"Wargh thick eyebrows," Ino exclaimed looking at the picture on the card over Naruto's shoulder.

"Sabaku no Gaara, amount of D ranked missions is unknown, 11 C ranked, two B ranked and 1 A ranked, quite impressive, rumours has it that he made out of all of those missions unscathed, his sensei is….oh my…" Kabuto straighten his glasses, "quit a legend, Akasuna no Sasori."

"Oh?" Naruto looked interested, "that's funny, my records show that their sensei is currently a former Anbu known as Baki."

"Bakis only a temporary sensei for the exams Naruto kun," Kabuto said, "I have no picture on Sasori at all. He is known to hide in a puppet to conceal his identity."

"Hmm…" Naruto frowned and took his deck of cards and place them back into his pouch, he then took out an even older deck of cards and started to spread them out "Sasori…Sasori….I remember having some information on him…."

By now their conversation had attracted even Ibiki's attention that arrived only to witness an interesting display of knowledge, _'that boy will go far,'_ Baki thought with a smile, he was really itching to have Naruto in his department.

"Ah ha!" Naruto took out a card and place one finger on it, the card started to turn show notes written on it, "this is my old deck, so it has no picture only data," Naruto explained.

"Sasori of the red sands, an S ranked shinobi will a number of high ranked assassinations to his name, specialises in seals, puppets and traps, ah now I see why he's not here in Konoha, he has killed a high number of Konoha shinobi, duelled with a few well known ones in the past,"

"Such as?" Sakura asked.

"The so-called white fang, the Yondaime Hokage and one of the sanin Orochimaru," Naruto said, "it was said that he and Konoha shinobi don't get along."

"Did he win?" Kiba asked, Naruto was amused to see that all the genin teams and their examiners were listening into their conversation, outside the door Hatake Kakashi listened in with interest.

"I have no idea," Naruto said removing the jutsu on his card, "there isn't much information on him or his past, and he doesn't like to associate with people unless he absolutely has to."

"The he's a loner," Ino said, "that's boring I was expecting something more fantastic, since he's an S ranked."

"The only one who knows his past is the guy himself," Narutos aid looking at the sand team, "perhaps his students would know."

"Hmm Naruto kun, there were rumours of the white fang's death. They said that Sasori was the one who finished him off," Kabuto said pocketing his cards, "was any of it true?"

Kakashi's eyes widened, his hand was shaking slightly.

"Who knows?" Naruto responded smiling, "I'm only a genin."

"Is that so?" Kabuto asked smiling back.

'_These two look as though they're going to kill each other,'_ Shikamaru thought making a mental note, _'better to avoid them for the rest of the exams.'_

But now Kakashi had left, heading towards the hokage's office.

""Wait doesn't it mean that this Sasori guy is weak?" Sakura asked suddenly breaking the tension, Kabuto blinked and twitched his fingers slightly.

"Kankuro," Temari motioned to her brother making a slicing gesture.

Kankuro nodded smirking, Naruto noticed it and choose not to interfere, _'in the shinobi world insulting your sensei is like insulting your skills, although for the three of them it looks personal, interesting I may want to update my information about them.'_

"Sasori may have been many things, but he wasn't weak," Kabuto said to Sakura straightening his glasses, "he was….an experimenter."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, at that moment Ibiki had enough, nodding to the rest of the chunin examiners, who took their positions, Ibiki roared, "alright you brats settle down, the first round of the exams is starting!"

The attentions of everyone in the room was immediately shifted to Ibiki who frowned when he saw a certain team not obeying his rules, "will the sand team over there stop what you are doing, there will be **no murders** in this classroom, those who disobey will not be allowed to take the exam!"

"Tsk," Kankuro said from behind Sakura, Sakura immediately sweatdropped.

"We'll let you off for now," Temari said also behind Sakura, she raised her hand and placed it on Sakura's head, "make sure, you don't end up facing us in the exams, little girl." Saying that Temari pushed Sakura's head down hard and walked away. Kankuro was playing with a small knife, flipping it once and ending it with an imaginary slicing motion as he followed Temari.

"There will also be no mutilation or attempts to do injury to any of the candidates for the exams," Ibiki barked to another behind Sakura.

Sakura immediately turned to see an eye floating at her eye level; it blinked and dissolved into sand, Sakura screamed, "waaaah what's that thing?!"

"You just made some very horrible enemies Haruno," Naruto said whispering into her ear, Sakura flinched, "I won't be surprised if they're out for your blood."

"Ah Sakura your cheek is bleeding!" Ino exclaimed taking out a handkerchief from her pocket. Sakura touched her cheek and sure enough it was bleeding heavily, her hands by now were trembling.

Sasuke looked at Gaara who hadn't move from his spot as he watched his siblings join him, _'how strong are those three?'_

"Do not turn your papers until I say so, now let's start. Rule number one, each of you starts with ten points. There are a total of ten questions on the test, each one worth a point each. For every question you get wrong, you will lose one of these points." Ibiki explained.

Kankuro nodded, "this point system is unusual," he whispered to Temari who nodded.

"Next is rule number two. The written test is still a team event. So in light of this, not only do your scores count, but those of your teammates do too. In other words, all three members of you team's points will be linked into one final score."

"What?!" Sakura yelled having recovered enough to yelled out at the ridiculous rule.

"Silence, I am the examiner, what I say is law! Now, the final rule. If during the exam one of you candidates do anything out of the ordinary, or in other words, leads a proctor into thinking that you're cheating and you get caught, it will cost two points from each member on the cheater's team."

'_By now most of the smart ones have already figure it out,'_ Naruto thought as the assorted genins complained around themselves, he looked around noting the faces of the people to watch out for, _'a grass team, the sand team, Shikamaru's team and interesting enough Sakura has figured it out as well, but its to be expected, this is her speciality '_

"All of you have your papers?" Ibiki said closing his eyes, "then…..BEGIN!!!"

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Kankuro was having a kick out of disqualifying genin teams, learning from Chiyo how to attach and detach chakra strings quickly and quietly, making a candidate 'accidentally' look over to his bench mate's paper by pulling on his head, or making a candidate lose his pen, Ibiki ignored this because the sand nin wasn't cheating, sabotage was perfectly acceptable.

Temari sighed as Kankuro amused himself, _'he has completely forgotten to pass me the answers, and sometimes my brother is such a kid._' Looking down, Temari saw a small scrap of paper rolling towards her supported by sand Temari opened it discreetly.

Temari, I had to use a distraction to get the answers, it was fun. Gaara's using his sand eye to copy the answers then pass them to the both of us. Ps: Gaara also placed sand in some guy's pants.

Temari twitched trying hard not to laugh, at the same time a candidate stood up jumping about and complaining about his pants, Ibiki immediately disqualified him and his team.

Nobody noticed that the genin's seat mate was a certain grassnin, his eyes looking at Gaara in particular, _'ku ku ku, I want to see what Sasori kun has taught you soon…'_

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_**Meanwhile in the Hokage's office…..**_

"Sandaime hokage," Kakashi said as he stood in the third's office, "was I heard about my father death true?"

"Kakashi," the third said, "you still haven't gotten over Sakumo's death?"

"How could I have gotten over it?" Kakashi demanded, "there was no way I will accept his death as a suicide, my father will never kill himself!"

"All the evidence showed that Hatake Sakumo killed himself, there are no confirmed suspects other than rumours, Kakashi it is time to move on," the third said.

"What about Sasori, he has a supposed grudge on my father and he was missing in Suna, on the day of the murder?" Kakashi asked.

"Having no confirmed proof we have no right to suspect Sasori at all Kakashi, so therefore I order this case is closed," the third said.

"…….I understand," Kakashi said and bowed, "I'll be taking my leave hokage sama."

POOF! Kakashi disappeared.

"Do you think it will be alright to let him be Sarutobi sensei?" Jiraiya asked looked at the spot where Kakashi once stood, "if he ever found out that Sasori was here, however temporary…"

"I believe Kakashi is better of not knowing the pass his father shared with Sasori," the third responded, "Minato told me about the deal he made with the puppeteer to spare Sakumo's life, a few days after the assassination attempt."

"Sakumo took the loss of it hard as I recall," Jiraiya said shaking his head.

Meanwhile unknown to the two of them in the room Kakashi was making plans of his own as well, in his hands he held a slim dagger, on the hilt there were the initials '_Hatake Sakumo_,' Kakashi spoke softly caressing the knife, "I'll make he won't get away with it father. I'll make sure you will rest in peace."

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**Back to the examination room….**

Congratulations to those of you who are left. You've just completed the first part of the Chunin Exams!" Ibiki roared to the students left behind. There were collective groans as candidates complained about the difficulty of the test.

Sakura placed her head on the desk and groaned, for some reason she had a large headache. Behind her Ino smirked.

Sasuke was feeling smug; he had used his sharingan to cop the answers. Naruto simply choose not to answer even though he had broken into the examiner's office to steal the questions.

Kankuro gave Temari and Gaara the thumb's up.

A crash at the front of classroom window made all the genin's focus turn towards the front of the class, there stood a woman dressed in a very revealing outfit together with a trench coat, she had a banner behind her with her name and shinobi rank on it.

"Alright kids listen up!" the woman announced. "It's time for the second test of the Chunin Exams! I am the chief proctor, Mitarashi Anko!"

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TBC……………….

I was supposed to submit this last week except the file crash showing only 1s and 0s.

Had to do the damn chapter all over again.

Also despite what many people think people dressed in all black attract too much attention! I once went to a part dressed in all black and people keep asking me whenever i'm going to shoot someone. So yes Naruto's going to keep his orange only darker.

Review!!! But at least don't give me a one liner or a word; I want to know where I went wrong!!!!!

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Extra (a removed scene):

"Okay how about we make things interesting," Kankuro asked holding up his stick of dango, "the first one to finish all their share of dango wins."

"No fair!" Temari responded, "there's no way I can beat you and your big mouth!"

"Scared Temari?" Kankuro teased.

"I'll challenge you," Gaara said looking at Kankuro.

"OK!" Kankuro grinned, "the one who wins……gets to do….the other's chores for a month!"

"Don't do it Gaara!" Temari yelled.

"Deal," Gaara said holding up his stick of dango.

"You will never defeat me," Kankuro smirked holding up his own stick.

"This is so immature," Temari scoffed, but she still held up her own stick of dango, "alright I'll be the judge, contestant are to eat their dango and finish it then the competition ends, leaving the dango half eaten in your mouth also doesn't count, understood."

"Let's get it on already," Kankuro said smirking.

Gaara nodded.

"On three," Temari said.

Kankuro and Gaara each raised their sticks.

"Two."

"Ha I don't need to do dishes for a month," Kankuro laughed.

"……………"

"One."

Gaara raised his other hand directly behind, the stick of dango he then, spread his palm open.

Kankuro frowned but didn't comment.

"GO!" Temari yelled.

Kankuro immediately devoured all three dango on his stick at one go, and chewing on them like mad, he was grinning, "halh you shalt neveur defeet me," Kankuro bragged his mouth full of food.

While Gaara simply closed his hand into a ball, Kankuro's eyes widened, "Mini Sand Funeral," Gaara said. And all the dango on the stick was immediately crushed.

"The winner is Gaara!" Temari yelled waving imaginary flags.

"No fair!" Kankuro exclaimed, "that's cheating!"


	9. the forest of many deaths

It took quite a while, wanted to try some fresh ideas. I apologise.

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"Huh?" Anko questioned when she looked around, "oi Ibiki, you passed twenty-six teams?"

"We have a lot of outstanding candidates this year," Ibki spoke in monotone while inwardly he was dying of shame.

"Heh, I will make sure to cut the numbers down by half. The second round of the exams starts tomorrow," Anko spoke onehand on her hip, "ask you sensei for the details! With that said…see yah!" POOF!

Temari was still looking at the place where the special jounin was supposed to be, inwardly she was thinking, _'I can't believe that she wore such a revealing outfit has she have no shame?!'_

Kankuro was drooling slightly, _'she is hot!' _However despite his half-dead state he was still able to dodge Temari's cuff on the head, "let's go already, we need to report back to sensei!"

"Uh….oh," Kankuro stood up nearly tripping over the bench, Temari was forced not to roll her eyes, while Gaara simply did stood at the doorway to the classroom his face impassive.

Meanwhile, Sasori was walking down the crowded streets of konoha alone without Hiruko, he knew that his students were busy with the exams giving him some time to gather information from several of his spies. Alone he was cautious and felt deadly exposed out in the open, 'any attack that happens in this crowded street can't be detected easily,' Sasori thought as his eyes glanced left and right, 'maybe after this I should consider hiding my really self more properly. One stab to the chest and I'll be dead…'

As Sasori walked he observed the crowds of people and row of shops, kids running through the streets with reckless abandon, 'this place is completely different from Suna, over there every store is in the inside due to sandstorms, and children don't behave like this,' Sasori looked at a little boy running after another kid with a smile on his face, 'we're completely different places even though we are separated by three days of travelling.'

There suddenly came the sound of a bell, it sounded vaguely familiar and Sasori stopped, 'it can't be….'

"Ah wind chimes!" cried a child, "look mommy, they're so pretty, can we buy one?'

"Hai, hai," said the mother, and Sasori turned to watch the child run to the shop, the shop itself had various wind chimes each of them made of different materials and had a different colour, 'Wind chimes,' Sasori thought, 'to think that I would be afraid of those.'

Deciding to check the store out Sasori entered the shop and looked around, he immediately saw a single wind chime with small bells around it.

"Ku ku ku, remind you of anything familiar Sasori kun?" came a voice from behind him.

Sasori didn't turn around, "Orochimaru huh?" Sasori spoke softly, "what are you doing here?"

"Did you see how lively Konoha is? So different from Suna Sasori kun," Orochimaru said, "all because they took all of the sand's mission and profits for themselves."

"I wouldn't care less," Sasori said as a strong wind started to blow, sending all the hanging wind chimes to ring loudly.

"You lie," Orochimaru mocked, Sasori could detect humour in the man's voice, "if that was the case, you wouldn't have taken in those adorable Kazekage brats as you students. You care for them."

"A puppet has no emotions, they cannot care for anything," Sasori said his fingers twitching slightly, "did not get a taste of it when I poisoned you the first time, old friend?" Sasori turned taking our four-poisoned senbon as he spoke, "Orochimaru?"

But there was no one, outside a trio of grass nin walked pass the store without glancing at the sign, 'is he gone?" Sasori thought, 'no he can't be, it will attract attention….then.'

Orochimaru's voice came out of nowhere, "since they're going to help me in the invasion, then you don't mind if I test them now, Sasori kun?"

Sasori immediately ran out of the store, pushing people out of the way, he looked left and right, "damn," Sasori cursed and leapt onto the roof.

'_Then you wouldn't mind if I test them now Sasori kun?'_

Sasori ran, ignoring the grass nin below him mixed among the crowd, the grass nin smiled, "kukukku, as cute as always Sasori kun?"

"Orochimaru sama, is it fine to mess with him?" said one of his subordinates dressed as a grass nin, "he is after all an S ranked shinobi."

"He is," Orochimaru said walking back to the shop, he took down the wind chime with the bells, "but I know his weaknesses, all of them…."

"Hai," his subordinate said and both shinobi disappeared into smoke.

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"The second round of the exams is at training are 44, also know as the forest of death," Baki said calmly taking out a map of the area, "the area is manily a circle with a radius of 10km, it should take about slightly less than two hours to reach the tower if you travel directly."

The door suddenly slide open with force that is caused the frame to crack slightly, the three shinobi within that room immediately went into battle mood only Gaara remained motionless, Sasori entered looking around with narrowed eyes, he then strolled to the windows and looked around outside with unseemly haste.

It seemed like a while before Temari finally found the courage to speak, "um….sensei?"

Satisfied, Sasori stepped back and looked at the three of them, he then looked at Gaara who was sitting in the corner of them room apart from the others, "there has been in a change in plans. You three are to not to recklessly engage any genin team during the second round of the exams." Unknown to her siblings Temari felt a slight chill down her spine at her sensei's words.

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The next day...

"Welcome to training area 44, also known as the forest of death," Anko said motioning towards the forest.

Naruto nodded while Sasuke smirked. Kiba laughed, "what's so scary about this place? I've been training in worst places before!"

Anko threw a kunai at Kiba who managed to dodged easily, the kunai landed at a certain grass nin's feet.

"You got a poblem mutt?" Anko questioned looking at the kiba with recogniition in her eyes.

"Heh, my sister trains me in places like this all the time," Kiba announced proudly.

"Idiot," Naruto said, "this place has one of the highest casualty rates for any training ground, there were even reported deaths."

Sakura gulped looking at the sand team, Kankuro grinned and showed his teeth, Sakura hurriedly looked away

"That's right as the blondie says," Anko said holding up a sheet of paper, "so we need you guys to sign a consent from stating that konoha is in no way responsible for your deaths during the exams."

"How can that be?" Ino complained.

"This is a survival test for those who can become chunin," Anko said with a smirk, "who says its gonna be easy?"

"Remember the plan Gaara," Temari whispered hurriedly, Gaara didn't reply.

"You have five days togather the scroll opposite of the scroll you recieved," Anko spoke holding up a heaven and an earth scroll, "after you sign the form and get your scroll, go to your starting gates, when the time comes we will open the gate and start the exam."

"Ku ku ku," a certain grass nin said cheerfully from behind Anko, "you dropped this."

"Oh thank you," Anko said with false sincerity her hand had a kunai at the grass nin's chest, "just so you know i had people to sneak up on me from behind."

"Oh sorry," the grass nin said with equally false sincerity.

Sakura shivered, "we got a lot of hotheads here huh?" Anko declared, "well then let's get started!"

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**Exam begins!**

"Okay so we got an earth scroll," Kankuro said as they headed in the direction of the tower, "now all we need is a heaven scroll, then we can pass the second round."

"Right," Temari said shaking her head, "the sooner we get the opposite scroll, the sooner we can leave this forest."

"What are you suggesting Temari?" Kankuro asked suspiciously looking at his sister, but surprisingly Gaara raised a hand, "there's someone here."

"Impressive," said a genin stepping out into the open, he wore a symbol of the rain on his forehead protector, "but that's to be expected of the students of the red sands."

"I guess you're here for the scroll," Kankuro stated, loosing Karasu from his back.

"That's correct," the rain genin spoke, "but we also here for revenge on what your sensei did to us rain nins!"

"So die!!!" another yelled running out of the bushes and another jump down from the top of a tree.

"Desert Coffin," Gaara said, immobilizing all the rain nins.

"Which one of you has the scroll?" Kankuro asked walking forward.

"Its….its Keitaro, the large guy over there!" one of them stammered.

"Shut up you traitor!" Keitaro yelled struggling, there was a slight thud as Gaara used his sand to extract the scroll Kankuro went over and took the scroll from the floor, "oh we're lucky, it's a heaven scroll, so now what do we…"

"Desert Funeral," Gaara said closing his palm, his victims screamed.

SPLURT! Kankuro blinked as blood covered his face, "Gaara," Kankuro spoke as he wiped his face free of blood, "can you at least wait till I'm out of range before you do that?"

"….Sorry," Gaara said emotionlessly.

"Bullshit, you're not sorry at all!" Kankuro yelled.

"Now, now," Temari said producing something from her pack and tossing it to Kankuro, "use this to clean your face."

"This is a bandage," Kankuro spoke but used it anyway.

Meanwhile a figure watched as the sand team argued among themselves, "as expected, they're really strong," Naruto spoke to himself, "I guess I wait and see what they'll do next."

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**With Orochimaru…..**

Orochimaru smirked, dressed in his disguise; he was able to enter the forest easily. Not only that, he was able to find his target so easily, he licked his lips with his long tongue, "ku ku ku, it won't be long now…."

Then he felt a familiar chakra presence, two of them in fact, the snake sanin sneered, forming his hands into seals, he summoned two enormous snakes, "go and kill those two over there," Orochimaru ordered as he leaped away, his team followed.

"Who's after you Orochimaru sama?" one of his sound four disguised as genin asked..

"An old friend," Orochimaru spoke, "you four are no match for him, so I order two of you to find a certain group of sand nins."

"Fine," said the fatter of the four.

"I'll go too, those sand brats pissed me off," said a red haired female.

"Must you always be so foul mouthed Tayuya?" the fat one asked.

"Shut up fatso!" Tayuya hissed, "be glad I'm in a disguise or I will so kick your ass!"

"Forget it Jirobo," said one with many arms, "being a lady is impossible for her."

"That's right Kidomaru," said one with two heads, "sometimes I think she was born in the wrong body…."

"Shut yer trap or I will do it for you!" Tayuya threatened, "I can sense the chakra of the sand brats over there, let's go fatty!"

"Tayuya, be more lady like," Jirobo said as he followed.

SMACK!

"She slapped him," Kidomaru said, "as always she's a tough little….."

"Kidomaru, Sakon and Udon," Orochimaru spoke calmly even though he was slightly exasperated by the familiar scene, "kill as many genins as you can."

"Fine," Kidomaru said and transformed into another grass nin, "let's go this way, I don't want to get caught up in those two's battles."

"Whatever," Sakon said following Kidomaru as they head away from Tayuya's group, "as long as I get to kill someone."

Orochimaru saw that his target was arguing with his team in the open, "ku ku ku, not on your guard I see?" Orochimaru decided to listen in while listening to Sasuke talk about a poem, at the same time Orochimaru formed the seals for a wind jutsu, "let's see whenever you have the potential Sasuke kun……"

Sasuke immediately felt a huge chakra spike in the air and told his two teammates to dodge, "dodge now!" Sasuke yelled as a sudden gust of wind blew causing a massive canal.

"Careful Sasuke!" Kiba warned, "whaeverthis guy is, he doesn't smell human, he smells like blood!"

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Sasori felt Orochimaru's chakra inside the forest and immediately started heading towards the location of the chakra. Hiding himself in Hiruko, he leaped through the trees thinking of a strategy to finish him off.

00000000

"_Interest technique," hissed a low voice, resembling the sound of snakes, "the art of the puppet master I believe."_

_Sasori turned towards the owner of that voice, his tail poised to strike, a man stepped out of the shadows, he had long black hair and a unnaturally pale face, what strike Sasori odd was that the man's eyes were not of a normal person, "and you are?" Sasori rasped eyes watching for any hint of an attack._

"_My name is Orochimaru," the snake sanin with a smirk, "formerly of Konoha."_

"_Konoha?" Sasori rasped, "I wish to have nothing to do with your village."_

"_Ku ku ku," Orochimaru laughed, "you need not worry I am fully aware of your grudge with that village."_

"_What do you want?" Sasori rasped, his tail twitching slightly._

"_I've know you had recently left your village Sasori kun," Orochimaru spoke and Sasori's tail immediately flew forward impaling the dirt in which the snake sanin once stood. Orochimaru had leapt a few feet back out of range of Sasori's tail._

"_So you know me?" Sasori rasped._

"_Of course," Orochimaru spoke kicking his lips, "I have heard of your experiments and wondered whenever you would join me."_

"_Why would you think I want that?" Sasori rasped, "I work alone."_

"_You wish to find a way to be immortal, eternal," Orochimaru responded smirking, "free of the burdens of the body, like me. Continuing to improve your art like my goal to learn all the jutsu in the world."_

0000000000

"Nooooo don't give him the scroll dumbass!" Kiba barked at Sasuke who had took the scroll for his belongings.

Orochimaru grinned and burned the scroll in question, "unfortunately I'm not interested in collecting scrolls….or the exam for that matter."

"Sasuke!!" Kiba yelped dodging the attack of the large snake, "quit screwing around and attack the snake dude!"

"Shut it!" Sasuke responded, "we can't beat him!"

"Oh yes we can!" Kiba responded, "oi Akamaru let's used that!"

The dog barked and transformed into Kiba, "don't interfer Inuzuka," Orochimaru hissed and summoned out a large brown snake to deal with Kiba, "show me how strong you are Sasuke kun, or are you unable to measure up to your brother, how weak you are?"

Sasuke finally snapped, "I'm not weak! I'll show you, I'll show you all!"

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Sasuke screamed as Orochimaru bit him, Sakura could only watch helplessly, Kiba was breathing heavily, the snake had done and excellent job of blocking the dog nin's way preventing from joining the fight, before Kiba and Akamaru had managed to destroy the snake from the inside.

"Damnit!" Kiba yelled as he tried to wipe himself clean of the snake's juices, Akamaru wasn't doing so well since it was smaller, "oi snake freak get away from Sasuke."

Orochimaru's head quickly returned to his body, he licked his lips, "I could see you have a lot of potential Sasuke kun."

Sasuke gritted his teeth and struggled to stay awake but failed as the overwhelming pain gripped him, he fainted and Sakura used her arms to support him, making sure he wouldn't fall from the tree branch.

"Sasuke will come to me for power," Orochimaru spoke looking at Sakura with those snake like eyes, "he will seek me out…"

"He won't!" Kiba yelled, "Sasuke is many things, he may be a bastard, and annoying guy who likes to show off but he isn't a traitor! He won't betray his pack! He won't betray Konoha!"

Orochimaru frowned, he remembered one member from the Inuzuka clan leading the third to his hideout exposing his experiments.

"In any case, Sakura get Sasuke out of…."

"You're noisy," Orochimaru hissed looking at Kiba directly in the eyes, "paralysing no jutsu."

Kiba suddenly realised he can't move, Akamaru whimpered. Orochimaru leapt up and dashed up the tree trunk heading towards the Inuzuka.

"Kiba!" Sakura shireked worried for him, as the snake sanin got closer mouth opening wide, a snake's head emerging from his mouth. However Orochimaru suddenly leapt back landing a few feet away as senbon embedded itself into the trunk, looking up Orochimaru's face twisted into a mocking expression, "Sasori," Orochimaru hissed.

"You shouldn't have given me an advance warning Orochimaru," Sasori spoke calmly in front of the grass nin, "otherwise I wouldn't have expected you to infiltrate the exams."

Sakura could only look in shock as the two s ranked nins glared at each other. Akamaru whimpered, Kiba look down and asked his dog, "what is it Akamaru?"

"….Kiba….what is it?" Sakura asked, Sakura had learnt that Akamaru was not only able to sniff out the enemy but was able to know the strength as well, "what did Akamaru found out?"

"This is bad," Kiba spoke as he carried Sasuke onto his shoulder like a sack of meat, "Akamaru says that both are frighteningly strong, he also says the red haired guy doesn't smell human."

"Like that grass nin?" Sakura asked.

Kiba nodded, "yeah, except this guy carries a higher smell of blood than that grass guy."

(A/N: over one hundred human puppets.)

Sakura gulped, "let's get out of here. To safety"

"Yeah," Kiba nodded and both he and Sakura leaped away, Akamaru meanwhile still whimpered inside Kiba's jacket.

"Its been a while Orochimaru," Sasori spoke calmly to his one time partner.

"Ah Sasori kun," Orochimaru grinned, "you never changed at all, still stuck in that adorable body of yours."

"Why are you here for?" Sasori asked, "I don't believe you take all this effort to enter the exams just to kill a bunch of genins."

"Ku ku ku, you know what I want," Orochimaru spoke licking his lips, "my goal is to master all the jutsu in the world."

"And responded that it was impossible," Sasori said calmly, "everyday, new jutsu are being created, the same as some being forgotten. You are still pursued that foolishness?"

"The same way that you constantly seek to improve your art Sasori," Orochimaru spoke with a smirk, "I have been improving mine."

Sasori raised Hiruko's arm and shot out poisoned stakes out of its arm, Orochimaru dodged easily and melted into the trees. Inside Hiruko Sasori waited expecting an attack, there came a sudden explosion from below him.

Sasori leaped back parrying Orochimaru's sword with his tail, the sanin had used his long neck to attack through the trees, Orochimaru spoke swallowing back his sword hs head disappearing out of sight above him, "what do you wish to accomplish by being the sensei of Shukaku's vessel?"

"Nothing," Sasori responded as Hirkuo's hand turned sideways to reveal a high number of kunai with explosive tags, he then released them aiming at a spot below him, "I thought it might be interesting."

"Ku ku ku," Orochimaru spoke from the top of the tree, "where do you think you're aiming Sasori kun?"

BOOM! The exploding kunais Sasori launched had hit the base of the tree Orochimaru was on causing the sanin to leap away.

"You can't win," Orochimaru said licking his lips as he stared at his opponent, "I have the advantage of the area."

Sasori returned that smirk, "is that so?" saying that he reached into his sleeves, Orochimaru bit his finger, Sasori took out a scroll with the kanji for 'danger' on it and unrolled it.

"Summoning no jutsu!" both of them exclaimed.

A large three headed snake appeared, Orochimaru standing on one of its heads, there came a large explosion as several trees collapsed unable to take the weight of the snake.

On Sasori's side, two large wooden structures in the shape of cylinders appeared at either side of him. Orochimaru spoke, "ku ku ku what are you going to bring out of those Sasori? Some puppet perhaps? Can it beat the speeds of my snakes?"

"No," Sasori said twitching his fingers slightly, a part of each compartment slide up to reveal….., "both its more destructive."

Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock, he quickly made several hand seals as Sasori began his attack, "Black theatre: the art of bombardment," Sasori spoke unleashing thousands of kunai each equipped with an explosive tag.

There was a large explosion that shook the forest, sending several shockwaves among the trees alerting everyone within its range. Orochimaru let out a loud shriek. Sakura yelped as dust filled the air together with blood.

When the dust finally cleared, Sasori stood at the edge of a large crater, the two wooden structures at his side, "you got away," Sasori spoke a hint of anger in his voice, "as expected, you sacrificed your snakes as a shield to escape, how very like you Orochimaru." With that said Sasori disappeared into smoke.

"That guy's a monster," Kiba said when he finally found his voice, "he didn't care about us at all, we were just in the way…."

Sakura nodded still clutching Sasuke tightly, "what do we do now Kiba? Our scroll's gone."

"Perhaps you two would like some help?" came Naruto's amused voice out of nowhere, "from me."

"Why do you think we'll want your help Naruto?" Kiba demanded to the unseen boy, "we're in competition!."

"As a matter of fact, my team has already passed the exam," Naruto said, "I'm just hanging around to enjoy myself."

"Screw you," Kiba retorted sniffing around for Naruto's scent.

"Wait Kiba," Sakura spoke looking up at the surrounding trees, "Naruto, you're a collector in the exams right?"

"Collector?" Kiba asked confused.

"I've heard about it from some jounins, collectors are people who take advantage of the exams to collect information about other teams," Sakura said reciting from memory, "they collect scrolls and use it to bargain with teams who lack the necessary scrolls. After being stuck in the forest for days most teams would do anything just to pass, so much that they will even betray their own comrades."

"Correct," Naruto cheered, "give the big forehead girl a prize!"

Sakura twitched, "NA-RU-TO!" Sakura yelled.

"So what do yah want?" Kiba demanded.

"As the forehead girl says its mainly information," Naruto spoke, "but what she forgot to say is that collectors also give their scrolls to allying teams, or teams from the same village, that way they will have a higher chance of passing the exams."

"You already got all the information you need on us right?" Sakura asked.

"Of course," Naruto said, "but what I want is information on those two you encountered, you two were able to witness their battle first hand and also hear a bit of their dialogue."

"In short, their fighting styles and personalities," Sakura said understanding immediately, "maybe even how they looked like."

"Sometimes I wonder why such a smart girl can be so brainless for a teme like Sasuke," Naruto mockingly.

"Don't call Sasuke kun that!" Sakura yelled as Kiba sniggered.

Even Kiba managed a grin at that statement, "yeah right, okay Naruto you got yourself a deal!"

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"I didn't really expect you three to betray Orochimaru sama," Kabuto said sliding his fist out of Dosu's stomach, "but then again, I didn't expect you three to be dead either."

"Well?" Yoroi asked as Dosu's body fell to the ground, "what did you find out….Kabuto?"

"The art of dead souls," Kabuto said, "someone kill these three then manipulated them to behave as if they were alive, he was even skilled enough to make them seemed as though they have a semblance of life, and made them steal scrolls from weaker teams, really his range pf control over these corpses is simply impressive."

"Kabuto summarise it," Tsurungi spoke, he hated it when Kabuto goes all medical on him.

"Simply put, whoever used these three to attack us has a high amount of chakra, and excellent medical knowledge," Kabuto said rummaging through one of the corpses to produce a single earth scroll, "really, such a scary guy it really makes this exam interesting."

"For you maybe," Yoroi said kicking one the bodies, "but do not forget, we also have an important mission."

"…….Don't think you are able to defeat me," Kabuto said straightening his glasses, "your levels are too low."

"Heh," Yoroi snorted, "we'll see."

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Anko had leaped into the forest the moment she seen the bodies, this technique could only have been done by…._Orochimaru._

"The sun is coming down, I better find him soon," Anko said to herself clunching her right shoulder. After what seemed like forever, she finally found him, the face he was wearing burned beyond recognition, even his clothes looked tattered and torn, _'who could have done it to him?_' Anko thought admiring the handiwork.

Orochimaru opened his eyes, "yet another rat comes out to play…," he spoke as bits of facial skin cracked and fall off.

"Orochimaru, you are too dangerous to be kept alive," Anko said taking out a kunai, "as such I have come here to sentence you to death."

"Death?" Orochimaru spoke asif to himself, Anko noticed that this action only caused more skin to drop of from all sorts of disgusting places, "I cannot die, I am immortal."

Anko used her hidden snake hands to drag Orochimaru out of the tree trunk and flung him towards another tree, the sanin's body hit the tree with a crash, "die!" Anko yelled forming the seals for the poison aicd no jutsu but Orochimaru managed to slip away.

"Stay still and die you bastard!" Anko yelled in frustration as the sanin slittered in and out of sight, inwardly she wondered how badly injured was her former sensei to make him so weak, he also wondered who was his opponent. As she followed him around the bend, she suddenly felt her curse seal hurt, she stopped holding her shoulder and grimacing in pain.

"You've caught me at a bad time Anko," Orochimaru hissed stepping out from behind a tree, to Anko's surprise he was completely unharmed, not even his face was burnt like when she first saw him, "it took me a while to shed my skin."

"Orochimaru," Anko hissed out his name like a curse as she collapsed clutching her cursed seal, "what do you want?"

"Ku ku ku why do my enemies always asked the same question?" Orochimaru teased gently rubbing his hand against her face, lowering his head closer to her ear Orochimaru whispered, "ask Sasori, he is currently in this village, not only that he was once…..an associate of mine, after all we once shared the same goals."

"Don't fuck with me Orochimaru!" Anko cursed as the pain overwhelm her, "why should I trust such a slippery bastard like you?!"

"Because you don't have a choice," Orochimaru mocked standing up and turning away, "by the way, don't you even think about cancelling the exams….if not you will regret it." Saying that Orochimaru disappeared in a flash of purple flame.

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"It seems like the brats passed the second part of the exam," Sasori said looking at Baki, he had given up looking for the sanin due to the fact that he had bigger things to do, "I'll be returning to sand to report, make sure these brats don't get into trouble."

Baki nodded, "hai, by the way….," Baki looked around cautiously, even though the area appeared to be deserted it was better to be safe than sorry, "regarding 'that', the Kazekage has issued a new order."

"Which is?" Sasori questioned, his tone neutral.

"All special class shinobi in Konoha are to return to sand and oversee the protection of the main village," Baki said, "this is to prevent our village from being vulnerable to other villages' attack. Those who refuse shall be punished for insubordination."

"In short the Kazekage doesn't want me involved in this war at all," Sasori replied coldly. Baki did not react beyond a slight narrowing of his visible eye.

"Baki," the fourth said, "should Sasori refuse, I'm afraid you may have to arrest Sasori and take him back to sand by force, make sure you and the rest of the jounin are prepared for it Sasori's loyalties are still not assured and we must prepare for his betrayal."

"Fine," Sasori said, and the rest of the hidden sand jounin relaxed slightly, " but in return I need you to do me a favour, all ten of you."

Baki looked up and directly into Sasori puppet's eyes, "that depends on the favour."

"Regarding Gaara," Sasori spoke and Baki blinked once unbelieving what he just heard, "interact with him, as much as you can."

"May I ask why?" Baki questioned.

"He…has changed, hopefully for the better," was Sasori reply, which made Baki looked even more confused.

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'_The five days were up,'_ Anko thought as the medic nin checked her shoulder for any remaining traces of the seal, she winched as medic jabbed her shoulder, "oi be careful damnit!"

"Sorry," the medic responded being more careful, "how do you feel?"

"Like shit," Anko retorted.

The medic smirked, "in that case you're alright Anko san, if you had the energy to be like that, I can say you're A-okay."

"Anko," an Anbu stationed at the tower appeared, "the deadline is up."

"So?" Anko asked as the medic walked away, "who many teams passed?"

"Six," the Anbu responded, "that's a lot even by our usual standards."

"Yeah," Anko said rubbing her shoulder slightly, "which means there will have be preliminaries, man haven't had those in a while."

"There also something else," the Anbu said holding up a cassette, "we have the record of the first team to pass the exams."

"Well let's see it," Anko said enthusiastically, "must be something good for you to get all hyped about it."

The Anbu inserted the cassette into the recorder, the screen flickered on showing the inside of the tower, three genin stepped into the screen, one of them was a familiar blond with a dark orange trench coat, he turned and did a V-sign for the camera then the screen went dark.

"He destroyed the camera," the Anbu pointed out rewinding the tap, "but here's the interesting part."

Anko looked closely at the blond, her lips turned into a smirk, "I see, impressive, he broke the previous record by five hours without a scratch on him, that's beyond chunin rank there."

"There is also another team you should see," the Anbu spoke taking out the tape and replacing it with another, "another team came in half an hour later, this was taken from another camera." The screen flickered to show a red haired boy walking in front of his teammates, there was a large gourd behind his back, Anko looked at the boy with interest.

"I see," Anko nodded and leaned back in her seat, "he's unscratched as well."

"Interesting isn't it?" the Anbu asked taking out the tape, "makes you wish they were pit against each other in the preliminaries."

"We can hope," Anko said standing up, "well, I guess I got meet up with the hokage then."

"Anko," the Anbu spoke, "be careful, I won't always be there to watch your back."

Anko smirked, "what are you talking about? I'll be fine I-."

"Don't say it," the Anbu cautioned, "well then….guess I better get going."

POOF!

"Men," Anko said shaking her head and left the room.

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"Alright kids," Anko said, "congrads on passing the second stage of the exams."

There were groans and signs as various genin relaxed after the end of their five days of torment, Anko smirked, _'these kids have no clue do they…..okay maybe some of them do,'_ Ank thought looking at Naruto who was smiling.

"But before we begin, allow me to introduce to you your examiner for the third round," Anko said.

A man landed on the ground in front of them coughing heavily, Naruto's eyes widen in recognition, "my name Hayate…cough…I'll be your examiner for the third round of the exams."

TBC...

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I hate this chapter mainly for the many things i left out.

This means that the sound genin team is out of the picture, but in their place i will add more scenes for the sound four.

Extra:


	10. prelims: the blood of my brother

Sorry for being late, the computer was crappy, I have to make the match ups pretty much from imagination.

Also there has been a bug that I can update my stories but you wouldn't be able to receive the mail, anyone got the same experience? I've updated my story last week but it didn't show.

And a _**GREAT BIG APOLOGY**_ To Kamikaze Hakkeshu for being a lazy ass, updating is hard due to my new schedule.

Edited since someone said they were confused, corrected a few spelling mistakes but i kept the 'orochimaru kicked his lips' for the fun of it.

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Orochimaru cursed as he watched Kakashi seal the mark on his prey, by right his genin team was supposed to be the bait to induce Sasuke to awakened the seal, but that had failed, miserably.

To make things worse, Sasori's unrestrained use of explosives had alerted the examiners to his presence in the exam and were now on high alert, looking at the genins who survived the second round in his disguise, Orochimaru saw Kabuto, Kabuto shook his head slightly. Orochimaru inwardly cursed.

"Now before we begain the exams anyone who wishes to quit must do so now," the examiner, Gekko Hayate said coughing slightly, Kabuto looked at Orochimaru with a glance, the disguise sound jounin nodded once.

"None?" Hayate asked, "then the preliminary round of the chunin exams will now begin. Names which are shown on the board will fight first, the rest please head to the second floor to await your turn."

The third looked at Kabuto who seemed deep in thought, as the board flashed with different names, Orochimaru purposely used a slight amount of his chakra to manipulate the board.

**Uchiha Sasuke vs Yoroi**

"Begin," Hayate said.

With no cursed seal to hider his chakra, Sasuke was able to defeat his opponent easily using a few fire based ninjutsus, he then ended the match by using a lion combo on a badly burnt Yoroi bringing an end to this match.

"Winner Uchiha Sasuke," Hayate said raising one hand.

"Hmph," Sasuke smirked then he sudden collapsed clutching his shoulder, Kakashi appeared preventing the Uchiha's head from hitting the ground.

"I thought I told you not to overdo it?" Kakashi murmured as he picked Sasuke up, "I've have to bring you back to the hospital again." Orochimaru looked slightly thoughtful.

"To think you could imitate my moves so easily, he truly is a genius," Lee said to himself.

"That's a load of bull," Kankuro said, Lee turn his head to see that Kankuro had detached himself from his siblings and was standing next to Lee at his left, "the kid only copied your attack there wasn't any skill involve in it at all."

"That guy got defeated because it is his destiny," Neji said, "its fate that a dropout will always lose to a genius."

"Oh?" Kankuro asked casually, "it seems you know that team well."

"Of course," Tenten said, "every non rookie genin team knows about team 'dropouts', they're the only team in Konoha that has failed together over seven times, and they were always put up by other jounin senseis as an example on how not to end up."

Tsurugi snorted, while Kabuto smirked.

"Oh look looks like the next match is up," Neji said looking at the board.

**Sabaku no Gaara vs Inuzuka Kiba**

"This is dangerous," Kankuro said to himself.

"Yahoo we're lucky to be able to fight so early in the round neh Akamaru?" Kiba asked his dod.

"Grrr arf arf!" Akamaru barked.

"Eh?" Kiba frowned as h paused in the act of jumping or the handrails.

"Arf Arf Arf!!!" Akamru barked louder and whined slightly.

"Are you coming down or not?" Gaara asked calmly.

"Eh?!!!" Kiba looked at Gaara then looked at Akamaru, "you sure?"

"Whine..whine," akamaru responded.

"If you're sure….," Kiba sighed, "let's try anyway."

Sand was released from Gaara's gourd and it fell to the floor in a golden trickle.

"Twin piercing fang!" Kiba yelled as both dog and genin crashed into the sand at high speeds, Gaara remained motionless, simply watching.

"Oi use ninjutsu Kiba!!!" Sakura yelled, "you can't defeat him using taijutsu or your normal clan techniques!"

"What do you expect me to use?!" Kiba yelled as he dodged one of Gaara's counter-attacks, "the guy's sand blocks everything!"

"Did sharingan Kakashi teach his students anything?" Naruto yelled loudly enough for everyone to hear, "I MEAN HE HAS COPIED OVER A THOUSAND JUTSUS AFTERALL, HE COULD HAVE TAUGHT SOME TO HIS STUDENTS!"

Kakashi didn't respond, he continued to read his book, before lowering it too look at Naruto in a bored glance, "you say something Naruto?"

"Nothing much, just that you don't teach your students anything," Naruto said innocently.

"Desert Coffin," Gaara said finally able to trap one of the pair in a coffin of sand, unfortunately for Kiba it was Akamaru.

"Akamaru!" Kiba yelled as he glance at Gaara who remained impassive. Naruto smirked, he was hoping against hope that Kakashi will be brought down by something like the death of his student, after all Kiba was just an associate of slight importance due to him belonging to the Inuzuka clan, but to everyone's surprise and shock, Gaara spoke, "give up or else I will crush this dog."

"Damn….," Kiba cursed, then sighed, "fine I give up! Please let Akamaru go!"

Gaara released the coffin and a terrified but unharmed Akamaru crawled out of the collapsed sand, "cherish your friends," Gaara said as sand formed around him, "if not you will stand to lose them."

Temari's mouth as opened in shock while Baki was looking at Gaara as if seeing him for the first time, even Kankuro looked at Gaara as if he didn't believe it.

"I don't want a dog's blood in my sand," Gaara said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh okay," Temari said weakly, "…welcome back Gaara."

"Were you expecting me to kill it?" Gaara asked looking at Temari in a puzzled glance.

"Um…not really," Temari said and immediately felt stupid, "looks like the next match is starting."

**Nara Shikamaru vs Yakushi Kabuto**

"Troublesome," Shikamaru yawned and walked down the stairs.

Kabuto smirked, "not quite what I hoped, but still…"

Both combatants stepped into the centre of the arena, "begin," Hayate said and leaped back. Both of them looked at each other warily, eyes not leaving the opponent.

"You don't mind giving up?" Kabuto asked politely, "I'm quite exhausted by the five days in that forest."

"Not a chance," Shikamaru yawned, "even though its troublesome I am curious to see what you are capable off, after all, we're both deadlasts in the academy."

"I see," Kabuto said smilling, he immediately dropped into the basic stance, "well then, let's begin shall we?"

Meanwhile in the stands Neji looked bored, "a deadlast vs another deadlast, this will take forever."

"Don't be too sure," Naruto said calmly, Neji frowned when he saw the blond genin had somehow escaped his detection and was currently standing on the right side of Lee, "those two are way smarter than you are."

"Says a middle ranker," Neji retorted.

"Blame the fact I hate to be in the same team as a genius," Naruto shrugged.

"Shadow Imitation no jutsu," Shikamaru whispered forming the seal.

Kabuto hurriedly leapt back, smirking, "I'm not going to be taken down so easily."

Shikamaru didn't reply and kept on attacking using his shadow, Kabuto responded by throwing kunai, forcing Shikamaru to release his jutsu and jumping backwards.

"I wonder, how are you going to attack me?" Kabuto asked as both ninja fought each other with kunai, turning it into an intricate dance in which both attackers try to overpower each other. Both fighter leapt back after they exchanged several blows, Shikamaru sigh, while Kabuto was deep in thought.

"They're taking so looong!" Lee complained, "as it this rate it will never be my turn!"

"Shut up and watch," Naruto said in a menacing voice, "it will be over soon."

"I guess I have no choice," Shikamaru groaned, "I wanted to keep this for another day," saying that Shikamaru place a hand into his pouch looking for something.

'_It looks like it will be difficult for me to advance without using one of my advance moves,'_ Kabuto thought as Shikamaru finally pulled something out, _'but then if I do that…they will know I am a medic nin….Orochimaru sama….what is he thinking?….I see, how clever.'_

Kabuto smirked, "I guess this is it."

Shikamaru held a large round sphere in his hands, Kabuto charged at Shikamaru with a kunai in one hand, the other hand was clenched into a fist. The third noticed it and was wondering what Kabuto came up with.

Shikamaru closed his eyes and tossed the sphere into the air, a sudden flash blinded everyone in the room, looking away from the light he quickly formed his jutsu, "shadow overwhelm no jutsu." There was a loud cry of surprise, then silence.

When the light finally cleared, Yakushi Kabuto was lying on the ground unconscious, Shikamaru frowned, "winner Nara Shikamaru."

Orochimaru smirked, _'you know me too well Kabuto….'_

"So now there's two people in hospital," Naruto said aloud, "wonder whenever those two will be receiving treatment in the same room?"

'_This brat…..i should have taken care of him in the first place!'_ Orochimaru thought, as the blond boy announced his intentions out loud.

**Abutrame Shino vs Tsurugi**

The fight ended soon enough with Shino overwhelming the opponent with bugs.

**Haruno Sakura vs Sabaku no Temari**

Kankuro smirked and yelled out, "Temari! Feel free to go all out!!!"

"We'll see whenever she deserves it!" Temari responded and leapt down with a gust of wind.

"Okay Sakura, you can do this," Sakura said to herself and walked down the stairs.

As both girls faced each other, Temari smirking while Sakura glaring back, a strong wind blew blowing Sakura's hair into her face.

"With that long hair can you see anything?" Temari mocked, "its even glossier than mine, what kind of kunoichi are you?"

"Shut we'll see who's the underdog!" Sakura snapped back, Temari simply smirked back.

"Begin!" Hayate said and leapt back.

Temari decided to play with the pink haired genin by sending a gust of wind at her every time she attempted to attack, heck she even used one star on her fan.

"Aaaah!" Sakura screamed as the wind messed up her hair and her vision.

"Give up," Temari said not moving from her spot.

"No way!" Sakura yelled and started her attack again this time forming a few bushins.

Temari send another gust of wind, not even bothering to take out her fan, she simply opened it, swung it once and place it back at her back making it seem as though she was creating wind out of nowhere.

Sakura screamed as she was thrown back from the now slightly stronger wind, her vision was completely covered by her hair again.

"You are truly useless you know that?" Temari said as she swung her fan again, "I know the fangirl type when I see one, they only care about their looks and their boys, they don't even bother to train and bring the whole group down expecting their prince to save them, this kind of thing….." Temari closed her eyes and bit her lip, "DOESN'T HAPPEN IN THE REAL WORLD!!!" Saying that Temari took out her fan and used the full might of her fan on Sakura.

"Am I missing something here?" Naruto asked as he looked at Temari's angry face.

"The kazekage intends to marry Temari off to some old fart when she's eighteen," Kankuro said, "perhaps even younger." _'Added to the fact that he's a bully and Gaara's fearsome reputation, means she can't go on dates, fall in love with anyone or even have many friends……poor Temari.' _

Sakura screamed as the blades of wind cut her up, bits of hair and clothing were neatly sliced off by Temari's wind, Sakura landed on the ground with a thud.

"Give up," Temari said taking out her fan and used it to pin Sakura down by the hair, Sakura struggled to stand up but her long hair dragged her down.

Meanwhile Sakura was thinking, _'why….why am I so weak?'_ Temari then kicked Sakura in the face and the pink haired Genin didn't even fight back.

'Must I always depend on Kiba….Sasuke to protect me?' Sakura thought, as she tried to block the blows from Temari's foot.

"Why is she doing that?" Baki spoke aloud, "by right she could easily defeat her with one blow."

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"_Hey…look over there…it's the sister of the monster!"_

"_Oh yeah I see her, look at her clothes and her hair…."_

"_Poor thing….she's never going to have a boyfriend……."_

"_Hey you want to make friends with her?"_

"_No way! I don't want to die!"_

"_As my daughter I expect you to be strong shinobi, which means I forbid you to indulge in all those feminine things….those will only make you weak!"_

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SLASH! Temari's eyes widened as pink strands flew everywhere, Sakura lunged at Temari with a kunai in her hand, Temari's body learning from memory easily sidestepped the blow then knocked the pink haired genin unconscious using the lower part of her palm.

"Winner Sabaku no Temari," Hayate said when Sakura didn't get up.

"I got to hand it to you," Temari said as she walked away, "I didn't expect you to cut your hair…maybe there is some hope for you after all."

Temari took her time walking up the stairs, inside she was deeply satisfied, "what were you doing Temari?" Baki demanded when she reached her team.

"I wonder," Temari said brushing away pinkstrands of hair that got stuck to her clothes, "I just can't stand girls like her."

**Hyuuga Hinata vs Akamichi Chouji**

"Go go Chouji!" Ino cheered, "bring another one for the team fatty!"

"Grrrr shut up! When I come back up there I'll deal with you!!!" Chouji yelled turning angry when the taboo word was spoken.

Hinata didn't spoke simply readied her stance. Chouji nodded.

"Begin!" Hayate said.

"Multi sized no jutsu!" Chouji yelled, "together with Konoha style of hand to hand combat, rolling meat tank!"

"Byakugan!" Hinata said activating her eyes, she easily leapt away from Chouji's attack.

Neji frowned as Hinata dodged attack after attack of Chouji's.

BAM! Chouji crashed into a wall screeching to a halt.

"Jyuuken !82 strikes," Hinata said attacking without mercy, "white whale!"

"Winner Hyuuga Hinata!"

"Way to go Hinata!" Naruto cheered, "show no mercy!!!"

"Hai…hai!!!" Hinata stammered.

"No its ALRIGHT!!!!" Naruto yelled.

"Um…….."

"ALRIGHT!!!!!"

"….A…Alright!" Hinata yelled.

"That's it!" Naruto cheered.

"Um sorry Chouji kun….," Hinata stammered as the medics came.

Naruto sweatdropped, "this is going to take a loooong time at the rate she's going…"

**Uzumaki Naruto vs Sabaku no Kankuro**

"Alright!" Kankuro cheered, "its time for round two!"

Naruto smirked, "oh really?"

Both of them disappeared from either side of Lee. Lee was crying, "when it is going to be my turn, Gai sensei?"

"No idea Lee," Gai said also crying, "the power of youth is strong in you…"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!!!"

The rest is history, POOF! Kakashi finally appeared next to Kurenai, "so what has happened?"

"Your other two students got matched up with strong opponents, both of them from the sand team," Kurenai said, Kakashi looked at the sand team with a bored look on his face, "and?" Kakashi asked, "what techniques did they use?"

"One of them the red haired one uses sand, while the blond female uses wind," Kurenai said, "you should know this if you were here."

"I had to take care of my student's seal, it has been acting up again," Kakashi responded calmly.

"Oh really?" Kurenai said and changed the topic, "so far two members of my team have advanced to the third round, only Naruto's left."

"I see," Kakashi looking at the two genins facing each other, "wonder who will win?"

"I have no idea," Kurenai admitted.

"Begin!"

Both genin didn't react other than to look at each other cautiously, Kankuro loosen the grip on the puppet on his back and it hit the ground with a thud, Naruto smirked, "mighty heavy puppet you got there."

"You won't last long against me," Kankuro said as he took out a scroll, out came Karasu with a poof.

"A puppet user!" Kakashi said to himself.

"What are you so worked up about?" Kurenai asked looking at Kakashi.

Naruto responded by appearing behind Kankuro, "you won't last against my speed."

"Kankuro's respond was to smirk, "heh."

CLANG! Kankuro had blocked Naruto's strike with a blade of his own, and Karasu came flying towards the blond each hand holding a poisoned blade. The puppet used Kankuro as a boost to charge Naruto at a higher speed.

"Huh?" Temari wondered. Baki was shocked. Even Naruto seemed surprised, the bundle lay forgotten on the floor as both master and puppet attacked together at the blond who was warding of all blows.

"What skill!" the third said impressed in spite of himself, "both puppet and master fighting together in taijutsu, what an interesting display."

"It use to only be done by her," one of the third's bodyguards said, "puppet master Chiyo, the desert mirage. Known to fight together with her puppets so well that the opponent cannot tell which one is the puppet and which one is the master."

The third nodded, "is seems we have strong candidates from sand this year."

The puppet clasped arms with Kankuro and Kankuro used his strength to throw Karasu at Naruto with attempted to dodge to the right but was surprise when the puppet followed him like a homing missile. Naruto raised his hands to block the blow, but instead of attacking using the blade, Kakuro used poisoned gas.

"Naruto kun!" Hinata yelled in fear.

"Victory," Kankurou cheered doing a thumbs-up at Temari, "and it wasn't even that difficult at all."

"Kankuro behind you!" Temari yelled.

Kankuro immediately turned at the same time Naruto's sword flew pass him and embedded itself into the bundle on the floor.

"What the, where's he aiming?!" Kiba yelled, "he missed the guy!"

To everyone's surprise Kankuro suddenly collapsed face-first onto the floor, Naruto walked over to Kankuro and kicked him over, everyone immediately saw that it was a puppet. There was a slight clatter as a blade fell to the floor, everyone saw Kankuro had unwrapped himself from the bundle clutching his left arm, blood was flowing from the wound on the upper left arm.

"You didn't think I wouldn't notice?" Naruto asked with a smiled, "such an obvious trick."

"Not yet," Kankuro cursed letting go of his left arm it hung uselessly from his shoulder, "I still can fight and I'm not going to lose."

"I see," Naruto said with a sigh, "you're one of those idiots, idiots that think that giving your life up is a sign of shinobi pride."

Kankuro raised his right hand and Karasu slowly got to its feet, "nah," Kankuro said as the blood continued to flow, "I'm just bummed that I won't be able to face my siblings if I don't make it to the next round."

"Oh so he's your family then?" Naruto said looking at Gaara out of the corner of his eye.

"Yep," Kankuro hissed as he staggered to his feet, "Gaara, Temari….heck even Baki and that annoying sensei of mine. What about you kiddo? You're alone?"

Naruto's eyes immediately turned red, "how dare you…."

'Chance!' Kankuro thought and the puppet posing as Kankurou immediately leapt up and it stomach opened revealing a chamber, Karasu flew and knocked Naruto into Kuroari, Kuroari's stomach closed, Kakuro twitched his fingers slightly and Karasu split into parts, each limg producing a poisoned blade where the joints were, "black theatre," Kankuro whispered the blade then quickly embedded themselves into grooves in Kuroari's stomach.

STAB! STAB! STAB! STAB! Blood started flowing out from the puppet.

"Naruto!!!" Kurenai yelled.

"Naruto," Shino said.

"Naruto kun!!!" Hinata cried out.

"Winner…Sabaku no……"

BOOM! Kankuro can only gap as Naruto blew up his puppet from the inside, he was bleeding all over, "damn you…" Naruto cursed as he started to turn red all over, "damn you, damn you, damn you, damn you!!!" Naruto looked up and everyone saw that those eyes were red, deep crimson red with a slighted pupil in each eye.

Kankuro immediately recognised it, he had nightmares of Gaara having eyes almost similar to that.

"I'll kill you!" Naruto roared and disappeared.

Kankuro found himself being kicked upwards, Temari was yelling_, 'why is she yelling again?_' Kankuro thought as he felt pain all over, _'damn it hurts…'_

"Mass Shadow clone technique!" Naruto yelled.

'_Heh Gaara you know how stupid you look with that face?_' Kankuro thought weakly as the first fist flew in his direction, _'Baki looks even worst…heh heh wish I got a camera…'_

"Kankuro!!!!"

'_Huh…..'_

"!!!!!"

'I can't hear you…' 

"!!"

'_Its too soft….'_

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Naruto glared into Gaara's angry face as blade meets sand, around them wind flew everywhere destroying Naruto clones whenever they hit, the rest of the sand had meanwhile sent Kankuro to Baki who was calling for a stretcher. Temari was meanwhile beating Naruto clones using her fan as a giant club.

"Oh its you…" Naruto said calmly as Gaara used his sand to swipe at the blond, Naruto easily leaped out of range.

"Why…..," Gaara questioned Naruto as both of them fought with Gaara on the offensive, "why doest it hurt?"

"Hurt?" Naruto asked confused, then he understood, "heh hahahaha!" the sand paused as if unsure of what to do.

"This…this is rich!!" Naruto laughed as he landed on the ground, "I didn't think that it was possible, but there it is….the so called Gaara of the desert actually cares for someone!!!"

Gaara landed as well still facing Naruto, his sand attacking any clone which came too near.

"Hayate…," Naruto yawned, "since my opponent is unable to battle, that means I win right?"

"Winner…Uzumaki Naruto," Hatate said grudgingly.

"Why you!!!" Temari yelled as she charged at Naruto fan raised.

"Stop Temari!" Baki ordered, "he won, that is all, there is nothing we can do about it!"

Temari grudgingly stopped.

"That's right," Naruto mocked, "you can't do anything."

BAM! "Damnit!" Temari cursed as her fan hit the ground.

"One of us must accompany Kankuro to hospital," Baki said as they medics carried Kankuro off the field, "they may need his personal information."

"I….I will do that!" Temari volunteered picking herself up and following the medic.

"Gaara what about you?" Baki questioned, "I can understand if you…"

Gaara turned not speaking a word, he walked to where a spot of Kankuro's blood was on the floor, Naruto smirked as he used the body flicker to head back up next to his team, "that was excessive," Kurenai spoke as Naruto appeared, her hand was gripping the railing tightly.

Naruto shrugged not caring, "he deserved it, no one mocks me like that and gets away with it." He then glanced at Kakashi who was by now standing next to Kiba and speaking with his student, "no one," Naruto spoke.

Bending down Gaara placed his hand directly on Kankuro's blood, then he stood up clenching it into a fist, he then looked at Naruto directly in the eyes and glared, no words need to be spoken as both jinchurikki face each other off. Then Gaara went back up to the second floor and didn't said a word to anyone.

"Baki san," Gaara said after a while.

"….What is it Gaara?" Baki asked Gaara never spoke to him directly before.

"Where is sensei?"

"He's in Suna, due to some circumstances," Baki responded.

"I see," Gaara said and didn't question further.

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**Rock Lee vs Hyuuga Neji**

"Lee I give you permission to take them off!" Gai yelled, "hope you don't mind Neji!"

"Like I care!" Neji responded coolly.

Lee took off his weights and they crashed explosively onto the ground.

After a few round of Neji blocking Lee's blows by using heavenly spin, Lee back away hurriedly as did Neji, both were breathing heavily.

"Lee!" Gai yelled nodding once.

"Yosh!" Lee yelled and disappeared loosening his bandages along the way.

Neji felt himself being kicked upwards and after being wrapped around in bandages heading to the ground at high speeds, _'shit,'_ Neji thought.

"Forward Lotus!!"

BOOM!!

Lee was panting heavily as dust was flying everywhere, to everyone's surprise Neji suddenly flew out of the dust and struck Lee on the shoulder, "do not think that I have no tricks up my sleeves," Neji said as he crouched into a stance, "I admit that your attack was impressive, but do not think that a dropout can beat a genius like me….you are now in my field of divination."

"I see," Kakashi thought as his sharingan eye was open, "impressive, he released chakra out of his spores to create a type of cushion to lessen the impact, truly a genius."

"….Sixty-two strikes!" Neji announced as Lee flew back from the strength of the blows, by now Neji was panting heavily, Lee hit the ground hard, but staggered to his feet

"LEE! NEJI!" Gai yelled, then he cried, "I don't know who to root for!!!!"

Tenten sighed; inwardly she was thankful that she didn't have to fight some monster genin, "it doesn't matter right one of us is heading to the third round of the exams?"

"A most excellent deduction Tenten!" Gai yelled, "well then, LEE, NEJI, GO ALL OUT AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE!!!"

"Yosh Gai sensei!" Lee yelled.

"Then I will have to use a new move I've invented," Neji readied his stance.

"Air strike palm!"

"Reverse Lotus!"

The resulting explosions were endless with no one emerging the victor until the dust cleared.

"Both are unable to fight, no one advances," Hayate spoke shocked as well.

"Hinata," Naruto said.

"H..Hai! Naruto kun!" Hinata said in a rush.

"Talk to Neji, right now is the time when Neji will listen to reason," Naruto said his eyes unreadable, "say what you want and don't stammer."

"R..Right!" Hinata said and followed the Medics carrying Neji and Lee off the field.

"It seems that you are not as cruel as you appear," Shino said calmly.

"I'm complicated," Naruto said with a smile, forming a seal, "kage bushin no jutsu."

"Where are you going Naruto?" Kurenai asked.

"I need to check on somethings," Naruto said and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

**TenTen vs Yamanaka Ino**

Tenten was too fast for Ino to catch with her mind technique as such when Ino misfired her jutsu, leaving her body vulnerable, Tenten was able to score an easy win without hurting anyone.

"Winner Tenten," Hayate said.

"At last its finally over," the third said lowering his hat slightly, _'but something about the line ups worry me some of them look deliberate.' _

Orochimaru smirked.

"Um as of this moment, the preliminaries to the third exams are now complete!"

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"Um to those who won your bouts and qualify for the third round of the exams congrads, even thought some of you aren't here," Hayate coughed.

"Kiba, I'm going to check up on Sasuke can you help Sasuke get a number?" Kakashi asked cheerily, "well then see you." POOF!

"Fine whatever," Kiba sighed and walked down the stairs, "let's go Akamaru." Akamaru whimpered, Kiba sighed and place the dog inside his jacket.

'Hmm including the absent Uchiha Sasuke, Konoha has six genins and sand has two, in the end it becomes a fight between the sand and the leaf,' the third nodded.

"Hokage sama," Hayate coughed, "pleased explain the third round."

"Well then, starting now I will begin explaining the third round, so listen up," the third spoke noticing at once that Naruto's shadow clone was there in place of him.

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"Well now," Orochimaru spoke to a completely unharmed Kabuto, "were you able to meet the boy."

"About that," Kabuto straightening his glasses; "the Uchiha was placed in an isolated ward with several Anbu watching over him, a mere genin like myself ranked far less attention."

"Which could explain how you can come and go as you please," Orochimaru said smiling, "how naively peaceful and relaxed this country has become."

"So if we strike now…," Kabuto trailed off, "how many will die?"

"Ku ku ku if we managed to pin Sasori in Suna and make sure that the hated between the two demons continue I'll say….easily," Orochimaru licked his lips, "two rampaging demons is likely to destroying konoha far faster than any shinobi force will."

"True," Kabuto spoke calmly, "so do you wish for me to continue weaning the boy to our side or do you want me to kidnap him?"

"Without the presence of the genin team I sent to forcefully awaken the seal, it has set my plans back by quite a bit," Orochimaru closed his eyes, "Kabuto….arrange an assassination attempt for our dear Uchiha, when the seal finally awakens, it will only be a matter of time, before he joins us. Oh and don't blow your cover."

"I understand," Kabuto said smirking, "I'll see what I can do."

"One more thing Kabuto…," the snake sanin looked positively murderous, "if you want to stop me, make that attempt successful."

Kabuto sneered and disappeared, Orochimaru chuckled, "with that face, I wondered what he's thinking…."

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"Take one slip of paper from the box," the third said after explaining the rules.

"The line up will be as follows," the third said when all candidates and representatives got their papers.

**1st round-Aburame Shino vs Hyuuga Hinata**

---------------------

**2nd round-Uchiha Sasuke vs Sabaku no Gaara**

**------------------------**

**3rd round-Uzumaki Naruto vs Tenten**

**--------------------------**

**4th round-Nara Shikamaru vs Sabaku no Temari**

"Alright!!!" Kiba cheered raising his fist in the air, "Sasuke's gonna get pawned!!!"

Gaara was solemn he was thinking of Naruto, _'so both of us are in the same block_.'

"I'm sorry Shino kun!" Hinata stammered.

"Don't hold back," Shino said solemnly.

'How troublesome I have to fight a girl this time,' Shikamaru yawned.

'_Will Temari be alright?'_ Baki wondered as he looked at the slip of paper.

"You will be given one month to prepare, in that time feel free to train yourself and get yourself stronger," the third said, "learnt from your enemies techniques, and remember you don't have to win the tournament to be a chunin just display your skills."

"So we can go now?" Naruto asked in a bored tone.

"Yes, take note you are forbidden to kill or injure any of your opponents before the third round begins," the third said.

"Damn," Naruto said looking at Gaara who glared back.

POOF!!

Naruto, Gaara and Baki all disappeared in either smoke or sand.

"Use the door for once!!" Kiba yelled annoyed he can't do what seemed to be a universally known trick.

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At the top of the hokage monument, a certain blond haired Genin stood there, hearing the sound of footsteps behind him, Naruto spoke, "I've done what you've ask, Homura."

"Yes I've just heard directly from the hokage himself," Homura spoke, his eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses, "good work, as always."

"It was easy," Naruto said, "as of now, only two foreign genin remain in the exams."

"Yes about that," Homura spoke frowning slightly, "the hokage intends to use the Anbu to guard certain key locations in the village, the stadium will be under your jurisdiction."

"Fine," Naruto shrugged, "as long as I get to kill."

"You will," Homura said then walked away, "you will." Naruto smirked.

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TBC……

**Shadow overwhelm not jutsu** : using the sudden light from a flash bomb, Shikamru creates a shadow twice its usual side and uses it to crush the enemy, however Shikamaru was suspicious due to the act that the injuries Kabuto received when he was knocked out were not from his jutsu.

**Black Theatre:** a puppet master jutsu in which the opponent is finished off with Karasu being broken down into limbs and each limb producing a single blade which embedds itself in ready made grooves in Kuroari

**Extra:**

"Since we're going to be working together, tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams for the future," Kurenai said.

"Um…..sensei can you show us how its done?" Hinata stammered.

"Alright," Kurenai spoke, "my name is Yuhhi Kurenai a genjutsu mistress, but you can call me Kurenai sensei, I like gardening and bunch of other things, my dislikes include perverts, drunks or molesters, but what I hate the most is people who judge others based on their looks, my hobbies include learning new jutsu and upgrading myself, my dream right now is to do my job well and hopefully settle down and have a few kids."

"That's cool," Naruto smiled, his eyes closed as he grinned a fox-like grin.

'_So that's him huh? The famous middle ranker, the only one in whole history of the academy to attain average scores for everything up till the day he graduated,'_ Kurenai thought, she then spoke, "what about you um….Naruto right?"

"Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen, I hate is waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook, my hobbies include reading, watching and looking around, my dream…..hmm…..not sure yet. Okay Hinata, let's see you try it!"

"Um….my…my…"

"Confidence Hinata!!!" Naruto yelled.

"Um…right!," Hinata mentally slapped herself, "my name is Hyuuge Hinata…my like are……are…… um can we skip that?"

"Hinata!"

"Right….I like some….things, I hate my clan rules and a certain seal, my hobbies include training and creating my own personal skills, my dream is to become the clan and get rid of a certain seal once and for all!" Hinata said those words firmly.

"That's the way Hinata," Naruto cheered.

'_So I see, he's encouraging her to be in the spotlight how unusual,'_ Kurenai thought.

"Um…Shino….," Hinata looked at Shino expectantly.

'_And it looks like they know each other before hand as well,'_ Kurenai thought.

"Aburame Shino. Bugs. Ignorant people, bug spray. Bug collecting. Create a healthy and strong colony."

"…………."

"What is it Naruto?" Shino asked.

"That's the first time you spoke so much," Naruto said in an awed whispered.

"…………………," Shino kept silent.

Kurenai couldn't help it, she laughed, it looks like this team will be fun to work with.


	11. transition chapter

Kamikaze Hakkeshu is my beta for this filck, thanks dude!

I was trying a new style that's why it seemed so long winded, thell me what you guys think okay?

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It was a cave, a rather large one, its sides carve in such a way that it seemed manmade, polished smooth by unnatural means. A young boy walked in this cave, his steps focused and confident suggesting that he was used to living in this cave. He passed by one of the numerous candles lighting the pathways the boy was using to reach his intended destination, his silver hair reflecting the warm glow of the flames.

"I have returned Sasori sama," the young boy spoke as he entered a huge cavern, numerous bodies, glass jars and various unspeakable lined the walls in straight rows, all of them arranged expectedly to suggest the one who arranged them was a perfectionist. There was a man who seemed to be in his early twenties standing beside on of the numerous work benches in that cavern, seemingly intend on his work that he didn't notice the boy, his shrapnel making short work of something that resembled vaguely human by removing its insides, there was a basin in which each unwanted articles was being deposited, waiting for someone to sort through it and reuse it.

"What is it Kabuto?" the man responded in irritation, not bothering to look up to acknowledge the boy, his gloved hands searching for anything that he might've missed during the removal process. "I'm busy at the moment."

"I bring news," Kabuto spoke smoothly, "that might be of interest to you."

CLANG! The sound of meat hitting the metal basin sounded throughout the cavern as Sasori tossed what remained of the insides into the basin, the puppet master looked up at Kabuto, his face expressionless, but seemingly bored at the same time, though Kabuto knew better, through long years of interacting with his master Kabuto had learnt to look at Sasori's body movements, a habit the missing nin didn't seemed to break himself off, "what is it?" Sasori spoke in a calm tone of voice.

"A few days from now there will be a battle between two rival shinobi villages, it will be a good chance to increase your collection," Kabuto looked smug at being able to gather such news, "also, shinobi from Konoha will be here as well."

"Kabuto," Sasori spoke resuming his work behaving as if Kabuto wasn't there, his back facing the silver haired boy as he worked, "I want you to infiltrate Konoha."

"Sasori sama?" Kabuto questioned his tone questioning but his eyes shrewd, "may I ask why?"

"It seems my old partner Orochimaru has a few things of interest there, I want you to find them and report your findings to me," Sasori spoke, his hands taking an ink pot and drawing seals around the corpse, "furthermore Konoha is known for its knowledge in medical ninjutsu. You will be able to increase your knowledge more than you could learn from me in tinkering with corpses. That knowledge will be of much use to me in future."

"I see," Kabuto smirked inwardly he was already considering a way to infiltrate from all possible angles, he already knew that Sasori's lack of knowledge in certain parts of medicine, parts that Kabut knew he would surely excel at, "it makes a lot of sense."

"Good," Sasori spoke, Kabuto didn't know what his sensei and master was thinking with his back turned and most of the body movement hidden by that cloak, he could only guess. "Come here and take this organs away, be sure to label each and everyone of them before you preserve it for your study."

"Understood," Kabuto bowed and walked towards Sasori, in a way both Sasori and him were remarkably similar, both shinobi are perfectionist, preferring to keep their individual workshops clean and organised, they both even had a specific type of corpse that they will tinker and add to their respective collections.

The one thing that both of them disagreed on was Orochimaru. Sasori hated the man and his so-called work, while Kabuto admired Orochimaru's work and subsequently the man himself. To Kabuto Orochimaru was an innovator and Kabuto supported his ideals.

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Present day….

For some reason Kabuto hated the smell of hospitals, even though he was raised in one, taught in one and practically lived in one when his father was alive, he still hated hospitals with passion when he should be used to it by now. Walking around the hospital rooms with a smile and a nod to medical staff that knew him since he was a child, Kabuto was planning a course of action on how to lure Sasuke to their side.

From deductive reasoning and logic drilled into him since he was a child, Kabuto had no doubt that Sasuke would betray his village for power, you can see it from his eyes, Kabuto thought smiling and greeting cheerfully as one of the old staff a member named Fujioka greeted him with a grunt, walking pas the old man. Kabuto paused when the old man spoke his name, at which he turned his face, cheerful and polite.

"You're Yakushi's kid right?" Fujioka spoke as Kabuto turned to face him, Fujioka looked annoyed and irritable, a trait Kabuto found oddly nostalgic. Kaburo responded cheerfully, "yes Fujioka san?"

"You know that Uchiha brat they brought in the other day?" Fujioka questioned glaring at Kabuto as it was his fault. "Of course," Kabuto responded smoothly, "who doesn't? I believe his name is Uchiha Sasuke right?"

"Yep that's the one," Fujioka grunted waving his hands as if to stop Kabuto from saying anything more, "the survivor brat of that loathsome clan. I can't really stand him, but he really has taken things too far."

"Pardon?" Kabuto questioned politely with a smile, he knew must tread carefully to prevent suspicion.

"That Uchiha brat has left the hospital," Fujioka spoke grumbling under his breath, "making those who were supposed to be looking after him get into deep shit. Turns out that the brat's sensei illegally took him out for some 'training'. Yeah right, training my….."

"Fujioka san!" spoke a nurse hurrying towards the duo, "we got a situation with a foreigner genin from Suna, we need you over there right away!". A few feet away a metal basin came crashing into the hospital wall, and shouts of, "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!!! IT'S GOT TO BE A MISTAKE!"

"Need my help Fujioka san?" Kabuto questioned looking anxiously at the commotion, judging from the voice the shouter was a woman, and quite an angry one as well. Fujioka cast Kabuto a grateful look, "yeah, I appreciate it," Fujioka spoke as both nins gathered to the scene of the commotion.

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"May I ask, what are you doing here Naruto kun?" Kakashi asked lazily as Sasuke stood there breathing heavily, his sharingan eyes were activated and they were spinning slightly. Sasuke looked up at the mention of Naruto's name and looked positively furious.

"I'm just passing through on my way to train," Naruto responded smoothly his voice coming from everywhere, "and was curious as to the disturbance in the area."

"Come out Naruto!" Sasuke roared, "come out and let me fight you!!"

Kakashi however raised a hand for silence, Sasuke glared at Kakashi in anger, but Kakashi simply ignored him. "What did I do to deserve a visit from you Naruto kun?"

"Information," Narutio responded his voice cheerful as if mocking Kakashi, "I've found out a few titbits of information, that I thought you might like…in exchange for…." Naruto trailed off.

"What do you want to know?" Kakashi spoke suspiciously.

"You are one of the few ninjas alive who knew how the yondaime hokage fought," Naruto responded, "you were even under his tutelage for a period of time."

"And?" Kakashi asked already he had some idea what Naruto want, "I take it you want to recreate his famous technique."

"Of course," there was no doubt to Kakashi that the spike of killer intent was directed at him, once again Kakashi wondered why a person who was average in completely everything could be so powerful, "why do you think I would give away such valuable information?"

"Because I know the location of the item you seek," Naruto spoke, there was a slight pause as if the speaker was trying to gather his thoughts, "and the name of the person who killed you father and cut off his arm."

"I already knew all that," Kakashi spoke there was a slight hint of anger in his voice, "the item in seek was lost in a skirmish with Iwa during the war, as for the one who killed my father, you purposely spoke out loud knowing I will overhear it. Leave, I don't wish to bargain with you."

"That's where you got it wrong Kakashi," Naruto stepped out from behind one of the large boulders, his hands inside his pockets and his face expressionless, "only one person alone fits all those questions. Furthermore your student's opponent in the third round, you know who's his sensei is, do you wish to know how to defeat him?"

"It can't be….," Kakashi was torn between the desire to know and the desire to refuse, Sasuke looked at Kakashi face with an irritated look on his face, by now he should be continuing on his training but his sensei was wasting his precious time by taking with this middle ranker, "oi Kakashi sensei," Sasuke spoke standing to his feet annoyed at being ignored, "hurry up and continue my training."

"Deal?" Naruto questioned, Kakashi closed his eyes the every present porn book in his hands, snapped shut to Sasuke's shock, "deal."

"Excellent," Naruto smirked.

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Baki looked greetefully at Kabuto as a sobbing Temari left the hospital room, the room itself was a single bed meant for rich guest but allotted to Kankuro since he was a guest, one connecting bathroom and a nice view of the outdoors, there was small table in which a vase of flowers that could have been from Temari was standing alone

"This is a nice room," Kabuto spoke looking at the room itself, then it sole occupant who was lying on the bed, his body connected to various monitors which beeped showing the blood pressure and heartbeat rate, "doesn't smell like a hospital at all."

Baki didn't respond to Kabuto's attempt at making a light conversation, his face was calm but Kabuto noticed that a slight twitch in Baki's eyelids indicated he was upset and slightly frightened. _To think people say that sand nins are a secretive lot,_ Kabuto thought as he walked towards the window to breath in the fresh air_, they just announce their feeling vocally unlike the rest of the ninja world._

"Were you close to them?" Kabuto spoke again letting the cool breeze blow across his face, he was thinking on how to follow Orochimaru's orders without making it seem to obvious.

"I was the sensei for Temari when she first graduated she was part of a team full of wind users," Baki spoke calmly, "our system is different from Konoha in that we strive to create the team with the best performance instead of the Konoha way in which they pair a genius with a dead-last."

"I see," Kabuto spoke still looking outside the window.

"Kankuro was part of the puppet squad, under Michi Akagi," Baki continued, "however sometimes when the mission requires shinobi to be as general as possible, we will have a team like Sasori sama's, otherwise it will be teams that completely specialise in one part of combat."

"I see," Kabuto understood, the Kazekage focused on creating completely specialised teams; sacrificing balance for power, _fool_. Kabuto turned to look at Baki who was looking directly at him with something akin to professional curiosity, ninjas were trained to be suspicious of everything and Baki was no exception, "why are you here instead with 'him' Kabuto?"

"Nothing I just happened to walk pass before hearing some of the commotion," Kabuto replied smoothly, he quickly changed the subject, "so what is the problem with him?" Kabuto motioned towards the heavily bandaged Kankuro lying on the bed.

"Several parts of the bones in his body were shattered, the rest was heavily affected by the demon chakra, his arms especially since he made an effort in blocking some of the attacks, the only lucky thing I can say about him is that the attacker somehow missed damage to his spine."

"I see that," Kabuto spoke raising one hand above Kankuro and focused, immediately light green chakra flowed out off his hand and surrounded one of Kankuro's arms, checking the other parts of Kankuro's anatomy as well, Kabuto realised that it was worst than he thought, "with this kind of damage, he will still be able to walk, but I don't think he will be using any techniques for the rest of his life, the nerves to his arms are _**werywebg ."**_

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Nara Shikamaru was a lazy genin who has an IQ of over one hundred, he had a laid back attitude that was constantly the source of many girl's remarks and jokes, and he had strict rules in which he pose on himself to prevent him from getting into anything troublesome, rule number one was immediately go back home to sleep after every mission, rule number two was to find a hidden spot to nap or watch clouds if his mother or any other troublesome woman was around, rule number three was avoid all troublesome woman no matter how pretty or beautiful they are as they are the kind to get him into troublesome situations.

There were plenty of other rules as well, but rule number three was the one that Shikamaru followed the most closely. His mother was the number one on his list for troublesome women, second was Ino, however after seeing the preliminaries Shikamaru added one more woman to his AVOID list, the sand kunoichi Temari. To Shikamaru Temari resembled a super woman more frightening than his mom, his mom wasn't a ninja and yet she still could boss his dad about, Temari will not only boss you about she could tear your house apart with the winds from her fan, scary.

So why when Shikamaru met the sand kunioichi crying on a bench in the dango, did he not left her alone? Simply put Shikamaru was taught since young to be a gentleman, and gentleman did not leave damsels in distress. Wondering what to do, Shikamaru walked over and sat beside the sand chick and ordered a plate of dango and tea for two, "yo," Shikamaru spoke while cursing himself on his inability to know what a female is thinking, sometimes Shikamaru wished he was a Yamanaka, the ability to enter a woman's head would help a lot, "want some tea?"

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"Only the medic genius Tsunade is able to heal this kind of damage," Kabuto spoke as he retracted his hand, "unless Suna has some kind of technique that is able to regenerate to that extent."

Baki looked thoughtful, "I'll be leaving to consult with the Kazekage, perhaps I should consult one of the honoured siblings as well on Kankuro's condition.

"It will continue as planned," Kaburo spoke, "there are no last minute changes."

"What about the rat?" Baki asked his eyes narrowing slightly.

"I've already taken care of it," Kabuto spoke Baki immediately noticed that there was a slight bloodstain on his right hand, "when I was looking at the view."

'_To think that such a highly skilled opponent is working for konoha's enemy,'_ Baki thought as Kabuto walked over the basin to wash his hands, smiling Kabuto took out a small vial tube that Baki immediately recognised as a poison, smiling Kabuto walked out off the room, a sinister smirk on his features, he will have much to do to ensure the invasion's success.

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"You can't hide with such strong killing intent.

Wiping the sweat of his face, Taki looked at the huge walls of Sunakagure, even though he worked here for two years, those walls never seize to amaze him. Born in one of Suna's sub villages, Taki was extremely happy when he was assigned to work here in the main village, he had wanted to see how the Kazekage looked like and there was even talk about how fun working in the main village is.

He didn't even know HOW wrong he was. The people in the main village were a serious and inexpressive lot, their paperwork seemed to pile up no matter how much Taki worked and to make things worst, the Kazekage seemed to ignore his paperwork recently and the papers were all dumped to the lowest man in the totem pole, which meant Taki was doing Kazekage level paperwork and his own as well.

Taki had seen the Kazekage's secretary Atari working as well, his numerous request to have an audience with the Kazekage denied. Taking the initiative, Taki decided to befriend the man and the two soon became fast friends, together thay managed to work out a system which allowed one of them to rest and relax while the other tackled the paper work which continued to pile up.

All that changed when someone named Sasori was assigned to work with them, Taki was a bit doubtful that why a red haired kid barely out of his twenties would be of any help to them, even if he shared a name with one of their legendary shinobi, Atari seemed oddly pleased.

To Taki's enormous shock, that red haired kid was the really McCoy, and he seemed to barely sleep as he went through the paperwork like a man panning for gold, Taki would leave in the evenings and come back to see Sasori still sitting in the same place looking through another file,, Taki gained a new hero after that, while Atari simply smiled and took the paperwork Sasori finished to process it.

Sasori even went on daily inspections to look at the walls, the wells and the pipelines of the main village. Taki accompanied Sasori taking down notes when Sasori spotted a rusty pipe that needed to be changed or a barely noticeable crack in the wall that needed to be fixed. Somewhere along the line Taki realised he had an excellent memory, and he used it as much as he can when Sasori questioned Taki on when were the last repairs done, or needed the knowledge of things Sasori forgotten. He became

Sasori's waking dictionary. Taki could feel a smile on his face as he followed Sasori checking on the south wall.

"What's the smile for?" Sasori questioned looking at Taki who looked embarrassed, "we're here to work not to have fun."

"I apologise!" Taki exclaimed hurriedly taking out his notepad and pen, even though he didn't need it, Taki still liked to take notes for his superiors to look through, "what is it Sasori sama?"

Sasori frowned at Taki who was sweating feverishly, "I want you to tell the one in charge of the south wall to install a few anti-air weapons facing skywards."

"But…pardon me Sasori sama," Taki spoke taking down notes, "I don't mean to be rude but I don't think there are possible enemies capable of attacking from the sky."

"Then you are misinformed," Sasori spoke gesturing at the surrounding area, "all angles of attack must be considered whenever it is from the sky or the earth, we must not leave any weaknesses in case the village got attacked. Besides the defenses here are so low that even a lone S-ranked missing nin can sneak in."

"But you'll be here right Sasori sama?" Taki questioned hopefully, Sasori shot Taki a glare, Taki wondered how he was going to get out of this one, like it or not Sasori was his superior despite his looks, and had more battle experience than him, Taki's mouth worked, "um….er….. why would a lone missing nin want to do that? It will be suicidal."

Sasori gave Taki a long serious look, as if wondering whenever Taki was serious or not, around them the wind blew furiously, Taki automatically closed his eyes as a gust of wind blew across his face, when Taki opened them Sasori had a blade pointed to Taki's throat, Taki widened his eyes, his mouth worked while his brain was digesting the information, "um…um….Sa…Sasori….sama?"

Sasori spoke retracting his blade back into the sleeves of his cloak, "shinobi who attain an S ranked are monsters, at best a Kage can only hope to fight equally with them, never underestimate one. Even a single S-ranked shinobi can destroy an entire country if he wants to."

"But…..," Taki was very tempted to say that there was no way a shinobi who could take down a country exist, but looking at Sasori's solemn and serious behaviour, Taki decided to keep his mouth shut. From what Taki knew mirage Chiyo had managed to take down a castle with ten puppets, perhaps it was possible, "…I understand. I'll inform the staff in charge."

"Good," Sasori nodded turning away from Taki while the sand nin furiously copied all the knowledge down, "go on ahead back to the office I'll need to inspect this bulwark."

"Hai!" Taki spoke hurrying away relieved at escaping with his skin intact, even though Sasori was one of his favourite people he was still notorious to work alongside with.

Sasori stood there for what seemed like ten minutes before he spoke, "I take it you need something Gaara?"

Gaara appeared in a swirl of sand his face calm and his eyes determined, "I have met someone like me," Gaara paused then he continued, "I need to know how, how to defeat a demon, Sasori sensei."

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TBC……..

This is a transition chapter, next round will contain lots of action.

A bit of ShikaTem there, but it will only be as a side relationship.


	12. the calm before the storm

The problems in writing a fanfiction is that you sometimes you have to write things you hate to do to characters.

I hate some parts of this.

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"There is no trace of him anywhere Homura san," Naruto spoke, "so I believe that Gaara has left hidden leaf." The two of them Homura and Naruto was meeting in a small heavily warded room that prevents anyone even the hokage from looking in.

Homura frowned, he then spoke, "then what about the Uchiha?"

"Training with Kakashi," Naruto answered calmly, "as ordered I gave the Hatake a little incentive to train the boy harder."

"You don't seemed to pleased," Homura noted he saw Naruto clenching his right hand slightly before relaxing, "I take it you still have a grudge against the Hatakes."

"…………………"

"That's fine," Homura spoke as Naruto tensed slightly, "as long as it doesn't affect your abilities, after all anger is what affects your seal, we may need it in the not so distant future." 

Naruto nodded giving a slight nod, "is there anything else Homura san?"

Homura closed his eyes taking in a deep breathe before speaking, "the hokage has some suspicious, lay low until the day of the exams. When it is time to fight the sand's monster, I will give you clearance to use the tails if need be."

Naruto nodded his face expressionless but his eyes were alight with a feverish glow, "well then see yah!" Raising his hands to form the seal, the Naruto clone dispelled itself.

Looking at the spot Naruto's clone had dispelled from, Homura prayed that he had not accidentally unleash a monster from its cage.

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"You look better," Temari spoke use she visited her younger brother.

Kankuro snorted, "yeah I can live through almost anything," Kankuro amended slightly looking at his sister he was surprised to see a slight smile on her face, "so what's up?"

"Not much," Temari spoke setting down a small basket of fruits she had brought along with her, "Gaara's disappeared to god-knows-where, Baki has to go around speaking with his contacts and I had to scout the village mapping out possible escape routes for civilians."

"The usual huh?"

"The usual," Temari responded.

There was a slight moment of silence, then Kankuro spoke, "fine I won't pry but if the guy or whoever it is even thinks off….."

Temari quickly peeled a banana and shoved it in Kankuro's opened mouth, "not a word…..or else."

Kankuro nodded noticing the menacing glare in his sister's eyes.

"Since you've gotten into the third round and all, you need any help in training?" Kankuro asked as he ate the banana munching and peaking at the same time with his left arm, his right arm was in a sling.

"No!" Temari snapped, "you've only just been recovering, why a few days ago I had to be restrained when I heard you had a cracked skull, thank god for medical ninjutsu."

"Fine, fine," Kankuro sighed finishing his banana, "but I can help you by using my puppets."

"You've only got Kuroari, Karasu got totalled remember?"

"Damn," Kakuro groaned, "where is sensei when you need him?"

"Back home," Temari paused, "but I wouldn't want to be the one to face him."

"Why's that?"

"Because there's no chance you will be made into a chunin this round."

"Oh shit!" Kankuro yelped knowing that he will endure a whole lot of hell back home when he returned to Suna.

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"In this month alone I will teach you how to make poisons," Sasori spoke as the three of them stood inside the greenhouse, "there will be no time to teach you seals, which was used against demons."

Gaara stood there his face thoughtful as he digested the various facts about the plants in the greenhouse, his sensei seemed almost alive as he happily described which part of a particular herb had the best results. Meanwhile a jounin how introduced himself as Taki to Gaara, was eagerly writing all this information down.

"But why is this relevant to Gaara?" Taki asked as Sasori pointed out the various uses for Cactus thorns.

"The techniques Gaara uses can be helped with the use of poison," Sasori spoke slightly irritated at being interrupted, "now the roots of this…."

"I don't understand," Taki spoke his face confused.

Sasori glared at Taki, "what rock have you been living under?" Sasori spoke bluntly.

"Huh?" Taki asked confused.

"Gaara show him," Sasori spoke tossing a kunai without any warning, Taki yelped as the blade sliced through the air, instantly Gaara's sand defence activated, crushing the kunai to powder. Taki gaped.

"Feel free to returned back to the office to work on paperwork," Sasori spoke looking at Taki his eyes cold as he regarded the surprised jounin whose mouth was hanging open.

"Well?" Sasori demanded after a moment's silence.

"THAT IS SO COOL!" Taki yelled his eyes sparkling, Gaara looked confused, "HOW DO YOU DO THAT?!".

"I have a demon sealed inside of me," Gaara responded bluntly, "it gives me the ability to control sand."

"Amazing!" Taki grinned taking out another notepad to write all of this down, "that's why you carry the gourd filled with sand all over the place….nice!"

"Why are you writing all this down?" Sasori demanded.

"We need to improve Gaara's attacks right?" Taki grinned, "might as well write all its qualities and physical attributes to figure out what poison to add to the sand!"

"Add to the sand….." Sasori spoke to himself his eyes unreadable.

"That's what you were suggesting right?" Taki asked eagerly, "I mean there are some poisons that work like acids on certain materials, add to the fact that we can add unlimited amount of sand…"

"Hold it," Sasori raised a hand looking at Taki eyes alight with interest, "what do you mean unlimited amount of sand?"

"Well um…our country is surrounded by sand that kind of acts like a natural barrier and…."

"You have just given me an idea on what to add to our village's defences," Sasori said striding out of the greenhouse, "let's leave this place and get to work."

"But what about the poisons lesson?" Taki yelled as both of them followed Sasori.

"It will be a hands on training," Sasori responded, as his mind was busy thinking out of various scenarios for his plan to work.

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It was a few days later that Sasori disappeared somewhere, that Taki finally had some time alone with Gaara. Taki had his notebook out and had Gaara telling him about the battles he had finished using his sand, the one fight that really caught Taki's interest was the one with Shukaku.

"Woah so let me get this straight," Taki spoke chewing on his pen, "both of you, were using almost the same sort of sand techniques." 

"Yes."

"Standing on the sands."

"I've already said this, do not make me repeat myself."

Taki gulped, but bravely continued on, "you guys can use this sand to fly?"

"Not exactly flying more like floating, making use of the sand to remain airborne."

"So why don't you use it to increase your speed?" Taki asked scribbling furiously.

Gaara paused, he had no idea why this human…no person did not run away at the sight of him, nor did he fear the sand, deciding to wait and see whenever this person was a threat, Gaara spoke, "not possible, the sand is heavy and it weights me down even in the air."

"No no, look to this," Taki turned his book upside down and passed it to Gaara, Gaara looked at the drawing then at Taki who grinned, "this is an idea I got from a book."

"It's a person standing on flaming wheels," Gaara poke not getting the point.

"Control the sand to move with you on it!" Taki said making some sort of whooshing motion, "you know magic carpet, green lantern or something like that.

Gaara suddenly understood, he look at the design thinking it through thoroughly, "there is a slight problem."

"Which is?" Taki asked looking at the picture wondering where he went wrong.

"Sand does not catch fire."

"………………" Taki was speechless.

"What?" Gaara's tone was flat and deadly serious as he glared at the stunned look on Taki's face.

"Never mind we don't need the fire," Taki spoke with a sigh, in a way Gaara wasn't very imaginative.

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Matsuri was lost; she had wandered the corridors of the Kazekage building looking for directions to internal applications office and so far had found no one. "What to do?" Matsuri sighed as she leaned against a wall behind a huge flower vase in the corner, "and to think I'm going to graduated soon….."

There came a slight rustle of robes, Matsuri peeked out from her hiding place to see a figure dressed in Kazekage robes walking pass her, cheering up at her situation since the Kazekage always know where to go, Matusri gathered her feet to her side preparing to stand up when another figure approached the Kazekage, looking at the pure black outfit with a small backpack at the back with the arm and shin guards, Matsuri realised that it was a messenger.

Not wanting to intrude Matsuri continued to hide herself, not realising that this in fact saved her life.

"Oi Kazekage sama," the messenger spoke stopping in front of the Kazekage, "how's the job suiting you?"

Matsuri was confused, normally if one talk like that to the Kazekage you will end up in some remote outpost close to the border with no contact for miles, the Kazekage was extremely strict about people giving him respect even if there were rumours of someone doing it all the time. Fujin was one example.

"It as boring as hell six-arms," the Kazekage responded, "the weather's crap over here, and the people are as boring as hell, what's Orochimaru sama thinking chucking me here in this crappy post?"

"Be glad that's all you get for failing his orders," the messenger spoke mockingly, hidden Matsuri was too shocked to even cry out, someone was impersonating the Kazekage!

"That's bull and you know it Kidomaru," the Kazekage snapped, his arms at the sides of his body palms on his hips in a distinctly feminine manner, "so what's the rest of the gang up to anyway?"

The messenger frowned, "well for starters Jirobo's is together with the rest of the force, even building some sort of hidden temporary command post in case the invasion takes more than two days."

"He's probably has the most easiest job out of the whole lot of us, that fatass," the Kazekage snorted.

"Sakon and Udon, those two got the job of protecting Orochimaru sama since that Kaguya guy got sick again," the messenger grinned, "I bet they even get to witness 'that' first hand."

"Pity the poor saps who had to be the sacrifice," the Kazekage spoke his tone amused, "so what about you slacking off you six-arms?"

"You wish," the messenger retorted, "nah, I'm was doing my mission which was coincidently in this village, and decided to pay you a little visit."

"Fuck off," the Kazekage retorted.

"That's the Tayuya I know and love," the messenger mocked, "and to think I was wondering you were watching your language today."

"That's cause this old fart I'm impersonating doesn't swear, at all!" the fake Kazekage retorted, "stupid old fart I'm glad we put him out of his misery."

"So that's all," the messenger spoke emphasizing on a certain word, "nice meeting you again, Tayuya but I got a **real** job to do."

"There's someone here," the fake Kazekage spoke suddenly as the messenger turned to leave.

"Who is it?" the messenger asked to Matsuri's shock, the messenger turned into smoke to reveal a man with six arms just like the fake Kazekage said, the man himself then pull down his headband to reveal a third eye, "ah yes I see her, over there!"

Matsuri immediately ran, jumping out from behind the vase and heading in the opposite direction.

"Kidomaru you idiot, the bitch's getting away!" the fake Kazekage yelled.

"I'll take care of her," Kidomaru grinned as he ran after her assuming the guise of the messenger again, "you were going to a meeting right?".

"I hate you," the fake Kazekage hissed as he watched Kidomaru disappear from sight around a corner.

"See yah!" the messenger yelled as he chased after the girl, "come back here!"

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Matsuri didn't know how long she ran, the adrenaline in her system that was helping her outrun the man was disappearing fast, whimpering involuntary, Matsuri wondered where she should run to.

Having left the kazekage's office and continuing running, Matsuri knew she was running out of options, she decided to head for the gates and call for help from the guards.

She ran, the man continued to his chase, using their ninja abilities both hunter and prey leapt from roof to roof of houses, she screamed as the man shot out a few shurikens attempting to finish her from behind, in her mind she could almost recall the blade that almost killed her, _'can I escape?_' Matsuri thought, _'where can I run?'_

Leaping down from the building hoping to lose him in the crowded market street, Matsuri landed in the adjourning alleyway, her feet touching the ground with a thud. She collapsed, not used to exercising so much. "No!" Matsuri cursed and forced herself to stand up, however an arm immediately held her in an armlock.

"Hello little girl," Kidomaru hissed into his captive's ear, "stopping to land was your first and final mistake." Clamping his other hand to stop her from screaming Kidomaru dragged her off deeper into the alley to finish her off.

Matusri struggled against the man's grip as he dragged her deeper and deeper into the desolate alley, there many alleys like this in Suna, it's long and narrow walkways some of them with roofs, made great hiding places for people hiding from the shade or engaging in illicit activities.

Meanwhile Kidomaru was wondering where he should kill her and dump the body. Inwardly he admitted that he wanted to do more than just kill her, but common sense, which most members of sound lack, dictate that someone could overhear the screams and the struggles. There was also the fact that she was a kid, and Kidomaru liked his woman to be slightly more ripe despite the way he looks.

Strung by desperation, Matsuri gave Kidomaru a great big kick in the shin with her heel, stepping on his toes as well. "Ow!" Kidomaru growled as his captive's high-heeled shoe crushed his left toe. "That hurt damned bitch!"

Matsuri immediately attempted to struggle free as the pain struck her captor, but Kidomaru was more experience at such things than her, he decided to end it by grabbing her throat attempting to crush her windpipe. Matsuri's struggles became more violent, her gasp became more erratic. She felt herself losing conscience her head was pounding furiously from lack of air.

She then knew she was going to die; both sides of her throat were being squeezed shut restricting blood flow around her body, her arms struggled uselessly before hanging limp, her brain slowly started to shut down, her eyes felt like popping out with tears blurring her vision, "mom," she whispered before she blacked out.

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Orochimaru knew that all his planning, all his decisions, all lead to this moment, the all for nothing gamble, which decided on whenever he will have his revenge and establish sound village as a great power in the shinobi world.

So far everything had gone as planned, Sasuke had received the seal, he had managed to control Suna temporarily by killing the Kazekage and using one of his loyal subordinates as a replacement, Sasori, his one time partner, has been effectively holed up in believing that unknown forces will attack Suna during the invasion of Konoha. All that remained was mainly the invasion itself and a few minor details.

However, being the paranoid man that he is, Orochimaru had two backup plans. In case Sasori decided to leave Suna and come to Konoha, he had ordered Kidomaru to retrieve what he needed from Suna under the cover of darkness, and had also made a secret pact with rain to invade Suna, eliminating two great villages at one go and boosting his reputation enormously.

Right now Orochimaru was waiting at the temporary base for Kidomaru to arrive with the 'item'; with this item Orochimaru can use it as a catalyst for his jutsu, rendering Sasori useless in battle.

There was slight murmur of voices, as several of his subordinates began to talk among themselves, Orochimaru smirked he could hear what those fools were blabbering about, it seemed that one of his sound four has returned.

There was a slight rustle as the sound of sandal feet hit the dirt next to his makeshift tent, Orochimaru hastily composed himself trying not to look to eager, inwardly he found it ironic that a jutsu he had made by mistake in his quest for immorality had such uses.

"Come in Kidomaru," Orochimaru hissed as he recognised the chakra signature of the individual.

There was a slight hesitation as Kidomaru stepped in the tent, Orochimaru took note of his untidy appearance and several cuts on his clothing, "did you run into any trouble?" Orochimaru hissed as Kidomaru briefly glance up before looking down.

"There were a few patrols and a sandstorm," Kidomaru spoke taking out two small makeshift bundles from a small pack behind his back, both of then were about the size of a loaf of bread, "but I've got it."

Orochimaru nodded his eyes checking both the bundle and the subordinate for any suspicious behaviour, "leave them on the table, and return to your other duties."

Kidomaru nodded, "hai Orochimaru sama," Bowing slightly Kidomaru left.

"At last," Orochmaru hissed taking up one of the bundles, "nothing can stop me now, ku ku ku."

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There was a slight hissing sound as the target melted into a pile of goo, Taki looked at the remains on the floor with something akin to fascination and fear, "wow," Taki spoke the one word that summarise Gaara's new attack.

"Wow," Gaara agreed the foreign word rolling of his mouth, in a few days he would be participating in the tournament and this would be his trump card.

"With this you can own that tournament!" Taki yelled raising one of his hands up in victory, "One hit and bam! The opponent's dead."

"…….I refuse," Gaara spoke flatly watching as the desert sands greedily devoured the remains of what used to be a steel rod, his sand normally brown like the desert around him had turned purple during the trial run and was only now turning back into it's normal colour.

"But why?" Taki demanded, "don't you want to win?"

"……………….."

"You know, think of the possibilities, both of us will get respect for inventing this stuff," Taki insisted.

"Taki," Gaara spoke looking at the young jounin, "what do you know of me? What do you know of Gaara of the desert?"

"Hmm," Taki frowned, "well….I know you're the Kazekage's son, you had a demon sealed inside of you since you were a baby and that you can use awesome sand attacks."

"I've killed people, many people."

"So do I!" Taki exclaimed, "you don't think I was able to rise to jounin because I'm a wimp do you?"

"I was a monster," Gaara continued, "there were times I killed people since they annoyed me."

"Ok that I've never done before," Taki admitted, "but so what, people make mistakes in the past, all you have do is change and its all forgotten."

"No one will ever forget," Gaara spoke remembering the pain, "there was once I tried to make people like me, but it only ended in me getting more hurt."

"Gaara," Taki looked at Gaara with impatience, "if you don't feeling sorry for yourself, I'm going to find some way to get around that sand barrier of yours and hit you on the head hard."

Gaara only looked at Taki his normally impassive face showing balant surprise and amazement, "why?" Gaara asked finally speaking what's on his mind, "why you don't fear me?"

Taki shrugged scratching his head, "well….um…..," Taki closed his eyes and raising his right hand pointing upwards, "well I admit truthfully, I've never heard much of you and you reputation until I came to the main village, where I came from we don't believe in rumours, only believe in what we see and experience for ourselves."

Gaara's response was to stare.

"Oh I know you don't really get it, but that's the way it works, reputations are created by rumours, which to a backward village like mine is worth nothing at all, we were taught from young to do more work and less talk, gossipers and the like got punished."

"I see."

"Anyway enough about that," Taki spoke looking at their surroundings, "let's just say you remind me of my younger brother, he's the genius of the family and worries too much for his own good."

"Is he a ninja?" Gaara asked impassively as he willed his sand to return to the gourd.

"Dead," Taki spoke bending down to inspect the damage, "died from some disease a few years back."

"I apologise."

"Don't be," Taki said as he took out one of his notebooks and started to record his findings, "hey Gaara."

"What is it?"

"Do you have someone precious to you?" Taki asked as he scribbled furiously.

"Why?" Gaara questioned wondering where Taki was going with all of this.

"Well I've heard that when one truly has someone they wish to protect, they become really strong," satisfied Taki flipped his notebook shut and stood up, "you worry about that person's safety and wish to protect them, that can also be a reason for existing in this world, to protect the ones you love."

"Why love?" Gaara spoke suddenly.

"Huh?"

"What is so good about love that people are willing to treasure it? Die for it? Preserve it?" Gaara looked at Taki with something akin to hope in his eyes, "do you know why?"

"Woah!" Taki raised his hands up in protest, "calm down Gaara."

"Tell me," Gaara had once again turned back to his impassive state.

Taki sighed, "to tell you honestly, I don't know Gaara. Its like you realise it only when its right in front of your face."

"……………….Thank you," was all Gaara said as he heading back towards Sasori's lab.

"Um okay," Taki responded following Gaara, "hey wait up!"

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Big cookies to those who can figure out what is in those bundles of Orochimaru.

**Hint:** it happens in canon I have only altered it.

Kamikaze Hakkeshu is my beta for this flick, he's a great guy, thanks!

Finally the prelims begin in the next chapter, with twist plots and a whole lot of action!


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